About BeHip Records

Our Philosophy

BeHip Records is the premiere Jazz and live music record label in Atlanta, GA USA. We are primarily focused on capturing the highest quality sound recordings Geets the Hip Bee! of live ensemble performances of art music in our world-class studio. BeHip Records is a partnership between Christopher Alpiar and Sean McLeroy with mastering engineer Larry Anthony providing the final quality control of our releases. We are based out of the renowned 800 East Studios in the Old Fourth Ward section of downtown Atlanta.

Our mission is to preserve art music for posterity and to be a major proponent of the continued proliferation of Jazz and other live art music and to remind the world that music is an organic, human event encompassing truth, emotion, spirituality and the human condition.

Most of our recordings are done live at our studio at the 800 East studio complex in Atlanta, with minimum in-room isolation, and without editing, overdubbing, and minimal processing and treatment other than recreating the natural acoustic setting of the room we are in. Think of BeHip recordings as a capturing of a live performance and less of a produced studio sound. This lets us capture and preserve the truth in the music, as accurately as possible - what was happening at *that* moment as a natural and organic event, rather than a large post production to create magically perfect music. Bands and artists able to thrive in this setting are of the highest caliber and their music has been wonderfully captured in a setting of the highest quality approach to real live music. We hope you enjoy our work!

Recording with BeHip

We pride ourselves in having a world class facility that includes a wonderful main room with an asymmetric design and 30' ceilings capable of comfortably recording a 30 piece orchestra and five isolation rooms of various sizes. In addition to wonderful instruments, such as a Yamaha C7 grand piano, several Hammond organs with Leslie cabinets, a few Fender Rhodes keyboards, a Wurlitzer, multiple drum kits, and scores of amplifiers, we also have a top notch collection of the finest microphones and mic amps ever built including Neumann, AKG, beyerdynamic, Gefell, Sennheiser, AMI, Great River, SMG, and Focusrite. We can state with confidence that there is not a better environment to record live and acoustic music in the Southeast United States.

Sean McLeroy - President & Chief Engineer

Sean McLeroy is an unheralded sound engineer as well as a Jazz guitarist. He studied at the New School for Social Research in NYC where he studied with Junior Mance, Kenny Werner, Hal Galper, Ronnie Mathews, Cecil Bridgewater and John Basile among others.

His knowledge of recording Jazz in a traditional and modern context is on par with any of the top engineers alive today. He is unorthodox in his approaches to recording, continuously trying unusual but very sound approaches he really understands how to get the grit of real jazz while still making a pristine and balanced product.

Through his production company, SMG Productions, Inc., he builds his own microphone amplifiers and other studio gear in addition to modifying microphones and guitar amps.

Sean is one of those rare people that has a deep understanding of the music as a musician, of the audio and physics of the audio as a sound engineer and audio scientist, and a thorough understanding of mechanical and electronic engineering. This unique blend of qualities, paired with his passion for the preservation and proliferation of Jazz and other live music forms, as well as being a great guy to work with, makes him a tremendous asset as the Chief Engineer at BeHip Records.

Christopher Alpiar - CEO

Christopher Kennedy Alpiar is an award-winning saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and media composer. His specialization as a performer is in the Jazz idiom with a particular emphasis on free-jazz and the Avant-Garde, but he is "...in love with every form of music made by humans". As a writer, his expertise is in large orchestral compositions and works for every form of ensemble in Jazz music. With his background equally balanced in Jazz and orchestral music, he is considered a composer's composer, who not only can communicate emotion with every audience, but never compromises the integrity of the art form. This truth is reflected in his ongoing tenure as the president of the International Alliance of Composers.

Chris has been a Jazz saxophonist for over 25 years. As an instrumentalist and studio musician, he has had the unique pleasure of recording as a sideman on hundreds of recording sessions and spent a significant amount of time touring Europe and South America. His experiences as a performer encompass nearly every genre of music currently catalogued, including, but not limited to, Pop, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop, Alternative Heavy Rock, R&B, Acid Jazz, Reggae, Souca, Calypso, Salsa, Merengue, Coumbia, Big Band, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Ska, and Avant-Garde classical music. He has shared the stage with many Jazz greats including Joe Lovano, Bob Meyer, Matt Pavolka, Randy Brecker, Peter Erskine, Eliane Elias, Michelle Petrucciani, and Will Lee.

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