Trish Gapik has been volunteering at the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music for quite some time now, and could not have wished for anything better. Her aunt was a singer during WWII...
Gaz Gaskell has fond memories of playing for AKG at the Frankfurt MusikMesse in the 1990s. These gigs were among several booth performances Gaz took part of as a product endorser, which t...
James Glanville was part of the team that relocated the Conn instrument manufacturing operations from Elkhart, IN to Nogales, Mexico, back in 1972. The result was a heavy blow to Elkhart,...
Sam Glenn has had a marvelous career as a saxophonist in big bands and many Los Angeles-based recording studios. He took clarinet lessons at Kitt’s Music in Maryland (now Jordan-Kitt’s Mu...
Dr. Merryl Goldberg grew up inspired by music. Her parents wanted her to learn guitar, but she always had a soft spot in her heart for the saxophone and would sneak in lessons whenever po...
Matthew Green grew up in a very musical family. His father plays French Horn and was greatly influential on Matthew's own musical pursuits. At first he played the cello in school then lat...
Massiel Gregory grew up surrounded by music in Guatemala before moving to the United States and settling in the Salt Lake City area. In the early 2000’s she began working at Cannonball Mu...
Donald Harrison Jr. was born in New Orleans to a deeply musical family steeped in all styles of music: brass bands, jazz, R&B, funk, and world music. His father was a Mardi Gras India...
Nicolas Hernandez played professional guitar when he met Bobby Dukoff in the early 1990s. The famed saxophonist and mouthpiece maker took Nic under his wing and taught him the trade. Ni...
James “Red” Holloway was an accomplished jazz saxophone player who began his love affair with music while a student of Captain Walter Dyette at DuSable High School in Chicago back in 1942...
Jim Horn, part of the “Wrecking Crew”, started playing the saxophone as a child and eventually expanded his musical reach to include the flute, oboe, and French horn, even playing the obo...
Alex Hsieh is the CEO of P.Mauriat Paris, a brass instrument maker in Taiwan that specializes in saxophones, trumpets and accessories. Their saxophone line of instruments are inspired by...
Karl Hunter, the accomplished saxophonist and clarinetist, represents Yamaha as one of its esteemed artists and clinicians. His journey into jazz began when he switched from clarinet to s...
Haruhiko Ikebe developed a novel way of approaching music retailing, creating Super Pro Shops that stock vintage and new instruments along with accessories and knowledgeable sales staff f...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Illinois Jacquet gained fame as a jazz saxophonist beginnin...
Carl Janelli played several instruments but was most fond of the saxophone. He began his career during the big band era and performed with Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey before embarking on a won...
Jochen Keilwerth’s grandfather founded the Julius Keilwerth Saxophones company in 1925 in Grasnitz. Once one of the largest saxophone producers in Europe, Keilwerth also produced trumpet...
Gerhard Keilwerth grew up loving the saxophone and dreaming of building his own line, which of course he did do to international success. The Keilwerth name has been synonymous with innov...
Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel...
Mark Kortschot is a Professor of Engineering at the University of Toronto who was approached by Guy Légère with an interesting idea in 1997. Guy wanted to make a synthetic reed for the cl...
Dave Koz is best known as the smooth jazz saxophonist who recorded hit albums beginning in the 1990s. However, his life in music began as a piano student before playing in the high school...
Stephen “Doc” Kupka met Emilio Castillo in July, 1968, and discovered they both had a dream to form a rock and roll band with a strong horn element. By the end of the year the band began ...
Gerry Labelle’s first musical instrument was the alto saxophone; later the tenor and soprano saxophone remained his main instruments, and he later played C Flute, piccolo & Alto flute...
Pete LaPlaca is a well respected industry leader who has added his great musical passion to the creation, development and marketing of musical products going back to the 1960s. Pete was a...
Julee Laukat is a technician and hand engraver at Cannonball Musical Instruments in Sandy, Utah. Julee is dedicated to her craft, and she is also married to Tevis’ brother. Tevis and his ...
Sheryl Laukat is passionate about the saxophone and the company she formed with her husband back in 1996. Tevis and Sheryl Laukat had the idea of creating a saxophone with acoustics that ...
Tevis Laukat and his wife Sheryl formed Cannonball Musical Instruments in 1996 in Sandy, Utah, located just south of Salt Lake City. The couple set out to address some of the issues they ...
Doug Lawrence was first musically inspired by his father, a woodwinds player. However, at a young age he watched as his older brothers’ professional careers developed and Doug had tunnel ...
Hubert Laws Jr. is an American flutist and saxophonist with a rich family history in the music industry. Specializing in jazz and classical, Hubert started playing the flute in high schoo...
Ronnie Laws, the younger brother of jazz luminary Hubert Laws (interviewed in 2018), exudes a soulful resonance on the tenor saxophone, yet his musical journey has predominant
Denny Lawson began learning and playing instrumental music while in college. He soon found he had a great interest in playing music and switched his major to music education. While he w...
Neil Leonard began playing saxophone at a young age and it's no wonder, his father was a noted Jazz historian and author. After being greatly influenced by the Pink Floyd album "Dark Side...
