Hidden Beach Recordings
Steve McKeever, CEO, Founder and Chief Creative Officer has spent over 20 years in the music industry. McKeever was born in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from St. Ignatius High School, McKeever attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated in 1982. From there, he attended Harvard Law School and earned his J.D degree in 1985.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, McKeever was hired by the law firm of Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles as an entertainment lawyer. While there, he discovered comedian Robin Harris, and helped him land a role in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. In 1991, McKeever joined Motown Records as senior vice president of artists and repertoire, where he expanded the label's line-up with people like Queen Latifah, while at the same time managing blockbuster acts like Boyz II Men and Stevie Wonder. He has also worked with Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and Zhane. The following year, he launched MoJAZZ Records, a subsidiary of Motown, where he launched a number of new artists. In 1993, McKeever played an instrumental role in the sale of Motown to PolyGram Records. McKeever left Motown in 1995 to work on his own projects, and in 1998, he founded Hidden Beach Recordings (HBR).
Charles Whitfield, Production and Artist Relations: A graduate of North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in Criminal Justice. Charles joined Hidden Beach for the date the label opened its doors as a paid intern with no record label experience but a passion for music. Charles had the foresight to introduce McKeever to Michael Jordan, one of the lead investors in Hidden Beach. Currently Charles oversees all production of content for the label and is the primary liaison between the artists and the label. Prior to joining Hidden Beach, Charles served as an assistant manager at a Fortune 500 consumer finance company where he became the leader in business development for his sales district.
Hidden Beach has four label imprints, which focus on a different genres of music. -Hidden Beach is the primary label imprint and is used for R&B, neo-soul, jazz, instrumental and compilation releases -Still Waters, a Hidden Beach Experience is the label imprint dedicated to inspirational music releases spanning the gamut from gospel music to motivational music to inspirational speeches. The debut release on Still Waters was nominated for a Grammy, a Dove Award and a Stellar Award. -Hidden Beach Celebration Series focuses on specialty themed albums such as Christmas and Mother's Day releases. HBR's first Celebration Series released was Bebe Winans' My Christmas Prayer which topped 5 different Billboard Charts, was names as one of Oprah Winfrey's Favorite Things and became Starbuck's biggest selling holiday album in 2004.
The label has grown a following with their popular Unwrapped series- instrumental versions of rap/hip-hop hits by contemporary jazz artists. The summer of 2008 saw the latest installment in this series, Unwrapped Vol. 5: the Collipark Cafe Sessions. Since its debut three years ago, "Unwrapped, Vol. 1" has sold 166,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Vol. 2 counts 91,000 units. "Unwrapped, Vol. 3," which features 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and Eminem's "Lose Yourself" as interpreted by keyboardists Jeff Lorber and former Earth, Wind & Fire member Larry Dunn, Hidden Beach saxophonist Mike Phillips and others, was released July 13. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart and No. 4 on the overall jazz chart. To date, it has sold 32,000 units. Released on June 24, 2006, the fourth installment in the series, "Unwrapped: Vol 4" peaked at number 3 on the Top Contemporary Jazz charts. "Unwrapped, Vol. 5: The Collipark Cafe Sessions" offers jazz instrumental covers of Southern hip-hop hits and was released June 24, 2008.
Comment
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Comment by Edie Antoinette on February 15, 2010 at 9:13am
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I sure appreciate you Sole7..I didn't know McKeever was the founder of MoJazz. I love MoJazz as you know..see the blog I Remember MoJazz. The dude is truly bad. I love the quality of his sound--as I did with MoJazz. Jill Scott is thee BOMB and I love that pic of her. You made my day ♥
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Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on February 15, 2010 at 8:59am
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Very interesting record label, i have never heard of it, although i know of Jill Scott. I have always liked this aspect of a record company "Hidden Beach has four label imprints, which focus on a different genres of music" Motown did that so well....Excellent Blog and a beautiful pic of Ms. Scott
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The history of the Butlers/Raw Soul is dense, but for all of us music nerds, that's normal. It is not totally clear what year the Butlers actually formed but they released their first single in 1963 on Liberty Records. That single was "She Tried To Kiss Me" and another single followed on Guyden entitled "Lovable Girl." After the Guyden single the Butlers took a break not recording another record until the single "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" was released on the Phila label in 1966. The group also backed Charles Earland and Jean Wells on one Phila single ("I Know She Loves Me").
As you might be noticing, the Butlers were doing a fair amount of recording but not achieving much success. The group's recordings sold regionally but never had the promotion to make an impact on the national scene. After the single with Phila, the Butlers moved to the Fairmount label (part of the Cameo-Parkway family) and released a handful of singles, some being reissued singles of the past. The Butlers were with Fairmount for 1966-67 and then moved to Sassy Records. Sassy released the group's greatest single (in my opinion) "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" b/w "If That's What You Wanted." A copy of that 45 sold for just under $500 last summer on eBay. Even though that isn't that much in the world of record collecting--it's still a hefty sum. The Butlers released another single on Sassy ("She's Gone" b/w "Love Is Good") that appears to be even
harder to come by then the "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" single.
The true history become a bit blurred here as the AMG biography states that the Butlers last record was released on C.R.S. in 1974 (". However, between 1971 and that single, Frankie Beverly formed a group called Raw Soul and released a number of singles. Some of the songs recorded by Beverly during this period are "While I'm Alone," "Open Up Your Heart," (both on the Gregor label) and "Color Blind." "Color Blind" was released by the Eldorado label and rerecorded by Maze. Beverly's big break came when Marvin Gaye asked Raw Soul to back him on a tour. Gaye helped Beverly/Raw Soul get a contract at Capitol. Beverly decided to take the group in a different direction, a name change occurred, and Maze was created.
The above isn't the most complete history of Beverly but hopefully someone will know a way to get in touch with the man or his management because a comprehensive pre-Maze history needs to be done on Frankie Beverly (his real name is Howard, by the way). Below you'll find every Frankie Beverly (pre-Maze) song available to me right now ("Color Blind" will be up soon).
If you have a song that is not included below, shoot it over to funkinsoulman (at) yahoo.com and it will go up in the next Frankie Beverly post (later this week--highlighting Maze). Also, if you have any more information please share your knowledge. The Butlers material has been comp-ed sporadically (usually imports) but the entire Maze catalog has been reissued and is available.
Enjoy. "She Kissed Me" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967)
"I Want To Feel I'm Wanted" (not sure which label or year)
"Laugh, Laugh, Laugh"
(Phila, 1966)
"Because Of My Heart" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967)
"Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" (Sassy, 1967)
"If That's What You Wanted" (Sassy, 1967)
Frankie Beverly is one of those cats that has lasting power. He started in the music business doing a tour with doo wop group the Silhouettes and then formed his own group called the Blenders. The Blenders never recorded a single, Beverly wouldn't appear on wax until forming the Butlers a few years later. Along with Beverly, the Butlers included Jack "Sonny" Nicholson, Joe Collins, John Fitch, and Talmadge Conway.
Beverly would later enjoy great success fronting Maze and Conway would become a
well-known penning Double Exposure's
"Ten Percent" and the Intruders' "Memories Are Here To Stay."
While Maze is a phenomenal group, Beverly's work before that group will always stand out as his best (imo).
The Butlers produced tunes that most Northern Soul fans would kill for and Raw Soul gave the funksters something to pursue. The Butlers recorded their first single in 1960 titled "Loveable Girl". Left to right John Fitch, T Conway, Frankie Beverly, Sonny Nicholson and Joe Collins.
Frankie Beverly12/6/46 - 9/10/24
Power...Through Simplicity ♪♫♪
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