About Terri

Soon after arriving in the Bay Area from her native New York in the early 1970s, Terri Hinte began working at Berkeley’s Fantasy Records. By the end of that decade she’d become the label’s publicity director, a post she held for nearly 30 years. She was privileged during that time to promote the music and professional endeavors of many hundreds of artists, ranging from Bill Evans and Hank Crawford to Sylvester and Sonny Rollins. Terri took a special interest in Brazilian music, learning Portuguese and traveling extensively in Brazil. In 2006—the year she left the company—she was honored as the De Facto Curator of Fantasy Records by the Jazz Journalists Association, which presented her with one of its A Team Awards. Terri joined the JJA board in January 2022.

As a freelancer, Terri continues to handle public relations for artists and musical enterprises whose work she admires. She is also a travel writer and essayist, a longtime student of metaphysics, and former chair of the Arts and Culture Commission for the city of Richmond, California, where she works and gardens.

All About Jazz Interview

Jazz Inside Interview

Music Publicist

“In her dealings as a publicist, [Terri Hinte] has consistently demonstrated an astute and productive understanding of the significance of the press in promoting jazz, and she has made a practice of engaging jazz journalists with sensitivity and genuine interest in their specific interests and preferences.” —Jazz Journalists Association (Jazz Awards 2006)

“Hands down, the absolute best.” —Bob Blumenthal, Billboard

Terri is currently working with Sonny Rollins, whom she has represented since 1978; Negative Press Project, the chamber jazz octet co-led by pianist Ruthie Dineen and bassist Andrew Lion whose January release Cycles I is a collaboration with Friction Quartet; Back to San Francisco, the New Orleans-inspired debut album by trumpeter-vocalist Cameron Washington and his 9-piece Lazy Californians, due in February; Daggerboard’s third Wide Hive release, The Skipper and Mike Clark, out in March, featuring trumpeter Erik Jekabson, bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, and drummer Mike Clark; Live at the Break Room, a 2-CD live album set for March release from LehCats, husband-and-wife team of saxophonist Norbert and flutist Karen Stachel, with special guest Giovanni Hidalgo on congas; and spring releases by percussionist Ami Molinelli, saxophonist Azar Lawrence, and guitarist Bobby Broom.

Press Release Archive

List of Clients

Writer/Editor

During her many years at Fantasy Records, Terri Hinte was responsible for writing, assigning, and/or editing all bios, press releases, liner notes, newsletters, ads, brochures, and miscellaneous copy generated in connection with the company’s CDs and supporting promotional materials. “Her newsletters and advisories were light-years beyond the puffery that passes for publicity in too many precincts of the music business,” wrote Doug Ramsey in his blog, Rifftides.

Terri was the principal contributor to the Brazilian music section of the original All Music Guide (1993). Travelers’ Tales Brazil (1997) includes two of her essays, one of which—“Argentino”—was a first-prize winner in the 1994 Book Passage Travel Writing Conference writing contest. Since 1994 she has been a member of the Women Writers’ Workshop of Oakland, California. She co-edited (with Elizabeth Fishel) and contributed to the group’s two collections, Wednesday Writers: Ten Years of Writing Women’s Lives (2003) and Something That Matters (2007).

“Argentino” is included in A Very Brazilian Christmas: The Greatest Brazilian Holiday Stories of All Time (2025, New Vessel Press).

In 2006 Terri wrote the booklet essay for the boxed set The Prime of Antonio Carlos Jobim (Runt/Water Music). She was honored in the annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing in 2007 (Silver Certificate for her story “Ask and Receive,” in the Travel and Healing category) and 2010 (Gold Certificate for “Hulk and Me,” Animal Encounter category).

Photos

1976, with my “big sister” Gretchen Horton, then Fantasy’s publicity director, at Trader Vic’s, Emeryville, CA. (Photo: Lucille Rollins)

1982, with Sylvester at a San Francisco party following “Jazz at the Opera House,” a fund-raiser for the writer Conrad Silvert. (Photo: Bruce Talamon)

1979, backstage at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, with Orrin and Lucy Keepnews, my dear friends and guides to the jazz life. (Photo: Phil Bray)

1980, with guitarist Tip Wirrick and producer Harvey Fuqua, in Fantasy’s Studio A. (Photo: Barry Shapiro)

1985, with Laurie Pepper in Hermosa Beach, CA, while Azymuth was in town for an engagement at Concerts by the Sea. (Photo: Mirandi Babitz)

1986, with Azymuth at Heathrow Airport, London. Lembra daquele dinheirinho chatinho? (Photo: Homero Pereira)

1995, in Kocelovice, Czech Republic: the roots of hudba (“music” in Czech). Birthplace of my great-grandfather Václav Bláha. (Photo: Helene Hinte)

2006, at IAJE, New York, with Sonny Rollins—a great artist, a generous friend, a pleasure to work with and to know. (Photo: Clifton Anderson)

Rescue dog Anson loves his forever home and garden. (Photo: Ed Reed)

Prince Claude rests his fabulous feets. (Photo: Terri Hinte)

Contact

You may contact Terri Hinte at the phone number or email address below, and follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Tel: (510) 234-8781
Email: hudba@sbcglobal.net

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