Jack Ashford played percussion as a member of the famed Funk Brothers, the house band for Motown Records beginning in the 1960s. Jack’s unique approach to the tambourine soon resulted in...
Byron Autrey loved to tell you everything you needed to know about how a trumpet works, and I mean everything! Byron studied the craft of trumpet design for decades, having been a player ...
Robert Averwater’s father, M. J. Averwater taught music, wrote a method book and opened up Amro Music in Memphis, TN, with a fellow music teacher. Robert recalled some of the challenges o...
This is the full length NAMM Oral History interview with Robert Averwater, which was captured on June 24, 2008. For his biography and web clip, please follow the link: https://ww1.namm.o...
George Azuma remembered growing up in Tokyo and having many opportunities to play rock and roll along with his brother and several childhood friends. After high school, George attended c...
Cowboy Joe Babcock is a singer and songwriter whose career in country music spans over sixty years. As a vocalist he and Hurshel Wiginton formed a backup studio singing group called The N...
Bob Baca teaches trumpet and is the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he approaches his teaching from not only the standpoint of a musician but fro...
Lloyd Baggs began his journey in music in forth grade as a cellist. After playing in youth symphonies he landed in the UCLA symphony while still in high school. Lloyd graduated from colle...
Rosemary Bailey was ten years old when Hammond hired her as a concert artist. Over the years, she took part in the growth of the organ market in the 1970s and had first-hand experiences b...
Howard Bailey was the executive account representative for the Freeman Companies, which serviced the NAMM show. Howard became a beloved part of the NAMM family and helped develop many be...
Michael Balter discovered, as a percussionist for many stage and symphonic orchestras, that he could create his own sounds by adjusting or wrapping his mallets. He slowly began designing ...
Dennis Bamber helped pioneer mail order catalogs for musical products beginning in the 1970s. After opening a small woodwind store in South Bend, Indiana in 1978, Dennis noticed that many...
Davide Barbi is a co-founder and CTO of IK Multimedia, a software company he established with his friend Enrico iori. They created the first specialized guitar audio interfaces that culmi...
Clay Barclay was associated with Crown International in Elkhart, Indiana for more than 40 years. As a kid, he took radios apart to see how they worked and has been fascinated with audio h...
Alan Barclay entered the music industry as a salesman, which is where his love of the industry developed. In 2003 he opened Absolute Music, an instrument retail store in England that inco...
H.B. Barnum started his life off as a child actor, staring in TV shows such as the Jack Benny Show and the Amos n Andy Shows. Throughout his life, however, he had a fascination with the p...
Dave Bartholomew was a noted bandleader, trumpeter, and songwriter who captured a pioneering sound known as the “big beat” of rock and roll. His uncanny ability to provide the perfect mus...
Patricia Bartolini and her husband William formed the Bartolini Pickup and Electronics Company in 1973 largely based on the acoustic research both had conducted over a range of several ye...
William Bartolini and his wife, Patricia, are among the world’s foremost experts on the science of acoustics. Their early publications on the subject in the 1960s and 1970s have since bec...
Jane Smisor Bastien together with her husband. James Bastien wrote the best-selling method book, Bastien Piano Methods, which was enjoyed by millions of students and teachers worldwide. T...
Jamal Batiste grew up in a very musical family and when he saw his brother’s drum kit at 3 years old, he fell in love. Raised in New Orleans he was surrounded by what he calls the gumbo o...
Jennifer Batten is often found at a NAMM booth checking out the gear or providing her feedback on products she has played over the years. Washburn Guitars released a signature model that...
Mike Battle invented the Echoplex, the pioneering electric effects device, which played a vital role in the early development of the rock and roll sound. The Echoplex was famously used by...
Scott Baxendale is a noted guitar luthier who has crafted a unique career based on his own style of guitar building that echoes several of his favorite luthiers. While working for Mossman...
Frank Baxter is the proud founder of Piano World (PianoWorld.com). Having programed webpages in the early 1990s, Frank used his skill and his insight that the web would soon be growing, t...
Dale Beacock grew up with a love of band music. After college he was hired as a band director and he felt as if his dreams had come true. He worked hard to design methods of teaching that...
This is the full length NAMM Oral History interview with Dale Beacock, which was captured on June 21, 2008. For his biography and web clip, please follow the link: https://ww1.namm.org/l...
Robert Beals was just a young man when he first met Chick Evans. The two worked to perfect and promote Mr. Evan’s idea of a synthetic drumhead in the 1950s. Up until that time, drumheads ...
Joe Beard doesn't remember a time when he didn't have a guitar. He grew up near Ashland, Mississippi becoming friends with locals Syl and Jimmy Johnson and Floyd and Matt Murphy. In Memp...
Carma Lou Beck was an active musician and teacher when she began working in music retail in Iowa in the 1960s. She opened her own store in Cedar Rapids in 1967, after working for a few ot...
Tom Bedell began giving guitar lessons in his home town of Spirit Lake, Iowa. Just a few months later, when Tom was 14 years old, he imported guitars with his name on the headstock from ...
John Beeson is the visionary founder and dedicated owner of The Music Shoppe in Terre Haute, Indiana. His lifelong love affair with the guitar began when he received one as a Christmas gi...
