Lou Curtiss was a long time supporter of American folk music and in fact, he helped coin the phrase “roots music.” For over 30 years he created, arranged and promoted the annual folk musi...
André Cotelle is the president of the French retail and wholesaler The Arpegès Company. The family-operated business has been a well-respected wholesaler in and outside of France for many...
Evelyn Conrad is the president of Tone King, a company her parents started in the early 1950s. Her father was innovative in manufacturing guitar bags and a line of accessories. By the 197...
Ray Benson and two friends formed a country rock band in 1970 called Asleep At The Wheel. Ever since that time Ray has continued to play with the band, which has seen nearly 100 musicians...
Drew Armentrout worked in music retail for years before being hired by the Roland Company to work in the electronic drum division. His early experience served him well as he viewed both ...
Marco Alpert has had a fascinating career in the music industry and lucky for the NAMM Oral History collection he shared many of his stories with us. Marco was an electronic music compose...
Jim Hennessey was working for Kaman Aerospace when he was transferred to the Ovation Guitar division. Jim worked closely with Charlie Kaman on several projects and later worked in the adv...
Joe Marinic played in several rock bands while in school and became fascinated with the electric guitar. As a teenager he began building his own amplifiers and pickups for his guitar. Aft...
TM Stevens was a prominent figure in the music industry, celebrated for both his design and endorsement of musical products and his illustrious career as a musician. His passion for encou...
David Schwartz was very active in the pro audio and recording industry in the 1970s when he had an idea. Since the era was filled with technological advances, why not highlight the happen...
Alan Parsons is known throughout the world for his innovative recordings in the 1970s and 1980s with the Alan Parsons Project, but did you know he was also an audio engineer who worked on...
Irena Komatar was the founder and president of the Lastra Company, located in the country of Slovenia. What started out as a small music retail store quickly grew into both retailing and ...
Micki Free is a Native American rock guitarist who has a strong passion for music education. He has worked with many tribes to encourage the youth to become active music makers. His own p...
Ruth Charles and her husband Dick opened a music store in Glendale, California, called Charles Music. They enjoyed a long life together as music makers and teachers and retailers of music...
Don Buchla grew up with a passion for music and a passion for engineering. When he combined the two loves, he created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before....
This video is of our annual NAMM Tribute, created in honor of our members and music industry friends who passed away in 2010 and early 2011. This Tribute was shown for the first time at ...
Neil Grover was playing percussion in the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he discovered a bright and unique triangle. When he bought a new triangle he realized it was nothing like that of ...
Ginny Mancini always loved singing! When she had the chance to form a backup group for a 17 year old vocalist coming from Chicago to Los Angles for the first time in the 1940s, Ginny jump...
Buzz Tarpley grew up in the music business. His grandmother was selling pianos as early as 1917 in West Texas. The Tarpley family officially opened a music store in 1927 in Pampa, Texas. ...
Bill Tarpley remembered the stories his father used to tell him about the early days of the family music retail store in west Texas. Times were hard during the era of the dust bowls and d...
David Tarpley remembered crawling around in the ceiling of his current church as a child, hauling the wires for the Allen Organ his father and uncle were installing. As a member of the Ta...
Joe D McBrayer always took great pride in the craftsmanship he put into the servicing and restoration of pianos. In a career that began when he was a kid sweeping up the store, Joe D mana...
John Welch was the president of Sofia Violins, which is an American-made instrument company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. John’s incredible life in music began as a child when he was cl...
Steve Weiss loved playing the drums as a small child, but never imagined in a million years that he would have a career in music, let alone a pioneering and successful career in the music...
Michael Udow served as principal percussionist with the Santa Fe Opera from 1968 until his retirement in 2009. His work with Keiko Abe in Japan as part of Summit Brass, Equilibrium and th...
Bill White played drums since he was a child. So when his son approached him to make a snare drum for him after Bill’s retirement, he agreed. Since that time the snares his son played hav...
Ron Vaughn began his career in the music industry as a drummer who was always looking for new gizmos that could produce the sound he sought. After creating a long list of clever products ...
Caito Marcondes has played the rhythm of Brazil his entire life. As a result of years of playing and research, he has become one of the world’s leading experts of Afro-Latin rhythm and dr...
Anne McGinty was hired by the Armstrong Flute Company in the late 1970s to run their publishing division after the company aquired Hansen as their distributor. Anne later moved to Florid...
