All About Jazz

John Stites Jazz Awards Winner which funded May 2024 tour of Illinois & Michigan
46 recordings including the major labels EMI and Warner Music, many reissues, 39 video productions, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy and Tony Award winners and nominees
New York City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Switzerland’s Basel Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University/Arnold Jacobs, The United States Army Band of Washington, D.C., Missouri Arts Council April 2021 Featured Artist
“A musician who plays the language of contemporary jazz on the tuba.”
–  JAZZIZ
“Tu like a tuba, fufu like a funker and gro like a groover. This tune has Herbie fusion magic all over it.” 4 stars
– Fiona Ord-Shrimpton, Editor/Curator of Track of the Day on All About Jazz, the world’s biggest jazz website
“Ralph Hepola’s Tuba carves out a place for the much-maligned horn in modern jazz.”
“The virtuoso tuba player leads his quartet through a set of his freewheeling originals, playing with remarkable fluency as the lead instrument.”
“With the release of Tuba, Ralph Hepola shows that not only is his instrument worthy of being a lead voice in jazz, but that he is one of the finest tuba players on the scene today.”
– Jazz Promo Services press release, based in New York, and part of the Big Apple Jazz Scene for more than twenty-five years
“Hey Jazz Fans – Ready for Some Hipster Heptones? Veteran tuba master Ralph Hepola creates a dynamic, supremely soulful new lead voice for the idiom on his eclectic debut album Tuba.”
– Jonathan Widran, a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Downbeat, All Music Guide
“Ralph Hepola makes a strong case for the tuba as a lead instrument in jazz.”
“The songs on Tuba cover a wide range of styles. Ralph Hepola’s tuba somehow sounds natural in all of these different styles, playing with the creativity and power of a trumpet or trombone but in his own personal voice.”
– Scott Yanow, author of thirteen books on jazz

“I am the first to tread the road that I have discovered.” – Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) originator of cubism