Wally Heider
Wally Heider (1923–1989) was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner (Wally Heider Studios.) After a career as an engineer in the 1940s [source?] and 1950s, he was instrumental in recording the San Francisco Sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many of Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 albums were recorded in his studio including Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Electric Warrior by T. Rex, Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison, American Beauty by the Grateful Dead, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Amazing Grace by Aretha Franklin and Abraxas by Santana.
Heider had a chronic stutter and more than ample girth.
Heider refined and advanced the art of studio and remote recording. His high-energy style endeared him to many musical artists whose work was enhanced by his engineering techniques.
His initial collection of recordings from the big band era formed the basis of the Hindsight Records catalogue, acquired from Heider in 1979 by Thomas Gramuglia. Through Heider, Hindsight ended up owning over 9,000 copyrights and masters. In 1986, Wally Heider hired music-film consultant Joseph Nicoletti Jr. of Laguna Beach,California to make and present the Big Band Masters to MCA, Sony-interscope,Paramount pictures and many more broadcast and Marketing companies.[1]
Career chronology[]
- 1941, 1946: production of several Alvino Rey and his Orchestra hits, including Bumble Boogie (1946)
- '60s Big band and pop recordings
- disciple of Bill Putnam; assisted at United Western Recorders, Hollywood.
- 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival remote recordings; met .
- 1967 Monterey Pop Festival remote recordings.
- 1968 Studio 3, Los Angeles Crosby Stills & Nash
- 1968-1980 Wally Heider Studios, 245 Hyde Street, S.F.
- 1969 remote 24-track recording
- 1970 remote 8-track recording; for example Creedence Clearwater Revival at Oakland Coliseum.
- 1971-72 1971-72 dual 2-inch 24-track remote truck recording.
- August 20, 1972 Wattstax recording
- 1974-75 remote concert recordings in the Los Angeles area.
- Instrument rental business in SF until Dolph Rempp and came along.
- 1975 studio at 1604 N. Cahuenga, L.A.
- 1976 Filmways
Musicians, Albums, Concerts[]
- Woody Herman
- Gary Tole
- The Who, Monterey Pop
- Jimi Hendrix, Monterey Pop Festival 1967
- Jimi Hendrix, Band Of Gypsys (New York, Fillmore East) 1970
- Ravi Shankar, Monterey Pop
- The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile, Lei'd in Hawaii (unreleased), Wild Honey, 20/20 ("Time to Get Alone" only)
- Bob Marley and the Wailers, Live at the Roxy
- , CSN 1969
- Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Deja Vu
- Jefferson Airplane
- Hot Tuna
- David Bowie
- Doobie Brothers
- Grateful Dead
- Jefferson Starship
- Starship
- Fleetwood Mac
- Don Kirshner's Rock Concert
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Earth, Wind & Fire
- Herbie Hancock
- The Jacksons
- Stan Kenton
- Bee Gees, "Here At Last Live"
- Frampton Comes Alive - west coast shows
- Dizzy Gillespie, album Free Ride
Engineers[]
- John (Jack) Crymes Jr. (recording engineer, Senior Electrical Engineer) Remote Recording, Heiders LA Studios
- Rik Pekkonnen (recording engineer) Heider Hollywood.
- Stephen Jarvis (recording engineer) Heiders SF '70-'75
- (Automatt)
- ('68-'69 helped prep SF studios for opening) (Hyde '69-'71)
- Stephen Barncard
- (245 Hyde)
- (1975 Cahuenga)
- Leslie Ann Jones (Automatt)
- (Automatt)
- (Automatt)
- (Automatt)
- Fred Catero (Automatt)
- (Automatt)
- (1966)
- (1966)
- Ben Gardner
- Michael Patterson
- Ken Caillat
- (Heiders L.A. '74-'76)
- Richard Dashut
- (for Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
- (Automatt)
- Jim Simon (Filmways/Heiders '78-'83)
- Mel Tanner
- George Fernandez (first session, Hyde st. '69)
- (Hyde '69)
- Bill Halverson (1966 Monterey crew)
- (1966 Monterey crew)
- (Hyde '70)
- 1974-80
- Biff Dawes (Woody Herman, Live at Monterey) Cahuenga 1971-1982
- (recording engineer) Cahuenga 1971 - 1979
- Larry Cox (LA and SF studios 1968-1978)
- David Coffin (245 Hyde)
- Andrew Bloch (Hustler and engineer) Cahuenga 1972 - 1978. Various remote and studio recordings.
- Steve Hirsch engineer/ assistant 1976 to 1981 Hollywood Selma / RCA Studio B
Various Remotes / Hyde Street
Legacy[]
Heider's remote recordings of Big Bands broadcasting via radio from the middle 1930s into the 1950s are a treasure trove of "live" recordings performed by a wide assortment of some of the most notable, (as well as lesser known), big band, jazz and popular artists of the entire period. Many of these broadcast recordings provide some of the only known recordings of complete arrangements by those artists, and include entire sections of arrangements that otherwise had to be cut from recordings made in commercial recording studios, because of the timing constraint that was prevalent for records throughout the entire pre-LP recording era. (Recordings made for commercial release on 10" 78-RPM records could not exceed three minutes and thirty seconds of music, and many jukeboxes were automatically timed to change records at 3:20.) As for his later years, the breadth and scope of important albums recorded by Heider reads like a veritable who's who of 70's album rock. For a full list of albums he recorded, see Wally Heider Studios.
References[]
- ^ Description of Hindsight Records, contained in "Michelex Merges with Hindsight Records". News Release, March 9, 2005.
External links[]
- NY Times: Wally Heider dead at age 66
- Wally Heider at IMDb
- Wally Heider Sound at IMDb
- Wally Heider website
Authority control  |
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- American audio engineers
- 1989 deaths
- 1923 births
- 20th-century American engineers