Craig Smith began piano lessons at the age seven and by the time he was twelve, was fascinated with the sounds of the home organ. He started demonstrating organs for Karnes Music at thirt...
Vic Flick is perhaps best remebered for a little lick he recorded on guitar for the movie James Bond! His fascinating career as a musician, which dates back to the late 1950s, was capture...
Roy Haynes knows jazz! His ideas and techniques have made him a legendary drummer who in many ways helped develop Bebop and Free Jazz, a form of post Bop jazz that was popular beginning i...
Ella Jenkins earned the title The First Lady of Children's Folk Songs and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to bringing music to children. She began collecting and w...
Quincy Jones! How can you write a few sentences to describe Quincy Jones? His long and amazing career in music has produced the soundtrack to many of our own life experiences and his driv...
Jerry Hauer grew up in a very musical home. His father was a big band leader with a noted radio show, Michael Hauer and His Band of the Hour! When Michael was off the road with his band, ...
Gabe Ireland joined the Coast Wholesale Company while in high school. After college he continued to work for the company as the rock and roll boom began and the entire industry began to c...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jack Jones was the son of actors Allan Jones and Irene Herv...
Graham Blyth began playing music at the age of 4 and studied electrical engineering in college, which led to his final paper on the topic of electronic organs. While writing the paper, Gr...
Al Sturchio served the Texas Bandmasters Association for over 25 years as director and also as president. His passion and unbelievable energy has been a large part of the success of the a...
James Goldberg grew up in Washington DC and was a journalism major in college, which led to jobs as a writer for newspapers. He later received his law degree at George Washington Univers...
Owen Clayton began playing the double bass while in school. At the time, he had to stand on a box to play, but he didn’t mind at all because he enjoyed the sound of the instrument and it’...
Takeshi Inomata was the noted jazz drummer who, among other things, helped design the first percussive instruments for Yamaha. His work with Yamaha took place during the early 1960s when...
Chuck Dadisman grew up on a farm and went to school to become a school music teacher, which he did for five years before moving to Omaha, NE, where he worked in piano and organ retail. I...
Hisatake Shibuya took great pride in developing music education opportunities for students wishing to bring music into their lives. By forming music schools in Japan and later opening the...
John McLaren Sr. served as the president of BBE Sound, which develops pro audio gear. The company purchased G&L Guitars and has been dedicated to keeping the spirit of the founders an...
Chip Owen was the product specialist at Fox Bassoons who helped engineer a series of instruments for Fox over the years including the Fox Model 900 Contrabassoon, which was first introduc...
Jeff Lee was the president of Resurrection Drums in Hollywood, Florida, a mecca for percussionists for miles around. Jeff was one of the most passionate members of the music industry you...
Sam Mosley and his friend Bobby Johnson played music together as teenagers in and around their hometown in northern Mississippi. Together the team formed a successful band and songwritin...
Gene Kornblum’s father formed the famed St. Louis Music Company, which played a legendary role in the music products industry during most of the 1900s. As President beginning in the 1960s...
Walter Hutcherson began repairing guitars in the 1950s and was one of the first repairmen to work on Fender Instruments. He opened Walters Music Exchange in Austin, Texas, and soon gained...
Jimmy Gilmer was born in Chicago, but spent his formative years in Amarillo, Texas. As a singer and guitar player, Jimmy gravitated across state line to Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, N...
Dennis Houlihan played many important roles within the music products industry, all of which have been driven by his passion and love of music and music making. After years as a demonstra...
Jack Long co-founded the Long & McQuade music stores in Canada beginning in 1956. At the time, there were few supplier/dealer relations between Canada and the United States. Establish...
John Hornby Skewes was the founder and president of John Hornby Skewes Company Ltd, a noted music wholesaler located in England, which was established in the early 1960s. John was also o...
Bill Hesterman has always been fascinated by the pipe organ. He studied piano and organ as a child, and with the good fortune that one of his teachers was an organist for the Mormon Taber...
John Nady began experimenting with wireless guitar systems as early as 1968, driven by a desire to liberate musicians from the constraints of cables. By 1976, he introduced the Nasty Cord...
Joe Chambers was inspired by his older brother George to play guitar and write songs. The brothers, Joe, George, Willie and Lester, formed The Chambers Brothers and began singing gospel m...
Ron Rowe served as president of JW Pepper following the tenure of his dear friend Dean Burtch. The two men were not only incredible business partners, they were close personal friends. ...
Peter Janis played in school orchestra and rock bands growing up as his mother played piano in the home and encouraged him to pursue music. His first job in the industry was working at S...
Jim Progris attended the Berklee College of Music back in 1956 and witnessed firsthand the development of the school’s courses and programs over the years. He returned to the school to te...
John Mayall was an enduring voice on the modern blues scene since the early 1960s. Mayall is a self-taught musician well-versed on guitar, harmonica, and piano. Following art school and m...
