George Duke built his musical career on innovative styles and sounds. His reputation for creative and influential performances cross over jazz, pop and rock music and have since his early...
Gary Wineroth is the president of the Guitar Showcase in San Jose, California, one of the best loved music retailers in the music products industry. With a historic past, the store has cr...
John W. Ward began working in the music industry as a piano salesman in the late 1950s, before working for the Sherman Clay store chain in 1961. After earning a position as one of the com...
Jack Tempchin remembers buying his first harmonica at Ozzie’s Music in San Diego at the height of Bob Dylan’s influence as a performer and songwriter. Along with other influences, Jack fo...
Robert Scott is known throughout the music industry as Doc Scott, the inventor of the Doc Pro Plug ear products. After running a family clinic in the Santa Cruz area of California for yea...
Bernie Krause teamed with Paul Beaver to form the popular and innovative team of Beaver & Krause and recorded a number of early electronic albums in the 1960s and 70s. They also worke...
Eddie Kramer began his long career as a record salesman in the San Francisco Bay Area before opening his own record store in the 1960s. As the Beatle Boom began, Eddie was selling a few g...
Harold Jones has toured with Tony Bennett for over three decades, topping off a solid career as a jazz drummer with a flare for singers. Harold worked with Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgera...
Kazuo Ishibashi spent over 25 years in the Special Equipment Division of JVC (Japan Victor Corporation) and headed their musical instrument engineering section. JVC marketed electronic o...
Mickey Hart is the noted drummer of the Grateful Dead who has helped define rock drumming since the 1960s. His passion for the art form of percussion led him to write a series of books a...
Barb Fairhurst was hired by Dave Smith to manage the business elements of his newly-formed company he called Sequential Circuits, back in 1977. The following year, the company released it...
Paul Chandler discovered a specialized market within the music industry as a result of being a rock and roll performer and loving vintage guitars. Over the years, Paul found that he had t...
Gary Burgett and his brother Kirk established PianoDisc out of their piano retail store in Sacramento, California in the late 1970s. Gary was a pianist and music teacher with a successful...
Armand Zildjian had many friends in the music industry and even years after his passing, the stories of Armand and his role in the industry seem to be everywhere. As president of the Ave...
Bob Heller’s grandfather began working in the music industry as a piano manufacturer in New York. Along with two partners, his grandfather formed the Winter Piano Company, which under the...
Joe Seawright was a piano designer and engineer for the Baldwin Piano factory in Greenwood, Mississippi, beginning in the early 1970s. Joe created several improvements to the workflow of ...
Ricky Skaggs is the internationally known Country Music performer and Bluegrass mandolin player who sat in front of our cameras to discuss his passion for Pro-Audio gear. Ricky covered hi...
Rick Shubb has always been fascinated with bluegrass music and its instruments. He has recorded and performed often playing his five-string banjo. He grew up in the Berkeley area and met ...
Doug Segars was the controller for the Baldwin Piano factory in Greenwood, Mississippi, beginning in the early 1970s. Over his 25 years with the company, Doug oversaw the time studies in ...
Bob See was the founder of See Factor, one of the pioneering and innovative pro-lighting and pro-sound services in the world. Bob’s influential career began when Bill Graham opened up a m...
Elwyn Raymer grew up in a very musical family and developed a real love for church music early on. His father and uncles formed the Raymer Trio, who traveled to churches around the Kentuc...
Ted Rasch was one of only a handful of music retailers who began using the Internet for commerce as early as 1996. He was asked many times in those early years to explain the Internet and...
Ron Raup was among the first commercial members to serve on the NAMM Board. His long career in the industry has been highlighted by his incredible vision and marketing skills for the Make...
Eberhard Rahm started out as a flute maker in 1976 and was in charge of the former Erlbach Flute company. 1991 Schreiber & Sons put him in charge of the production, when they opened...
Robert Petteruti sat in the showroom of Twin City Music in Providence, RI, for his NAMM Oral History interview. The showroom is in the store his father opened in the 1930s and within the ...
Ken Parker began building guitars and basses, first for his brother then for other players, in the early 1970s. He fell in love with arch-tops and became one of the best-known guitar luth...
Marlene Parker teamed with her husband, Drew, to move from Canada to South Carolina to take over a small town music retail business, Separk Music, which had been established by a band dir...
Drew Parker has traveled a remarkable musical journey as musician, Canadian band director, publisher, and music retailer. Along the way, he earned the reputation as a dedicated music edu...
Walt Ostermeyer had a solution to the complaint of millions of school age music students who came into his music retail store, the wood reed tastes yucky. Walt designed a series of reeds ...
Don Oriolo grew up in a very creative home. His father was the cartoonist behind such characters as Casper the Friendly Ghost and Felix the Cat. Don developed a passion for music as a chi...
