Jesse Flores was the founder of Flores Music stores located in Peoria and Pekin, Illinois. He had the idea of surrounding himself with music when he was a young boy and when the chance ca...
Sol Fleising worked for Erikson’s Musical after earning his business degree and even worked in a small music retail store for a while, but he had a vision to own his own company. During t...
Maynard Ferguson’s first big time gig was with the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra. He later played his unique trumpet style, with plenty of high notes, with Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Ken...
Sandy Feldstein played an important role in the publishing of music and method books on percussion. With a sharp understanding of the publishing business and music education, Sandy has be...
Roy Ernst is professor emeritus at Eastman School of Music located on the campus of the University of Rochester, the founder of The New Horizons Band program, The Roy Ernst Music Institut...
Buddy Emmons is on the short list of the most influential steel pedal guitarists in the world. Along with Alvino Rey and Speedy West, Buddy helped define the role of the instrument in pop...
Walter Ehret was the music arrangers’ equivalent to Mel Blanc – the man with a thousand voices. Walter was the man with a thousand pseudonyms. Under his various names, he arranged for m...
Val Eddy was a legendary vibraphonist and composer who played a large part in the early acceptance of the vibraphone in classical music and popular recordings. With his trusty 1922 Leedy ...
Steven Eaklor is a walking encyclopedia of the history of the electronic organ –especially the Hammond Organ. Since he was a child he has loved the Hammond and ironically enough grew up t...
Charles J. Dumont’s grandfather and uncle opened a sheet music distribution company in 1945. The company, Charles Dumont and Son in Philadelphia, became one of the key jobbers within the ...
Pat Downes combined his engineering background with his passion for music to create the electronic air drums. Forming the company Palm Tree Instruments, Pat became an inventor in the wor...
Dick Dolan is the president of QRS, the historic makers of player piano rolls. He purchased the company in the mid 1980s and ensured that QRS continue to innovative products in the electr...
Philip Dodds seemed to always be drawn to electric musical instruments as a teen, so it was no shock that he made a major contribution to the field of keyboard and synthesizer development...
Don Dillon is an industry original! Throughout his 25-plus years in non-profit association management, Don has represented some of the best-known organizations in the music industry, most...
Bo Diddley was the pioneering rhythm and blues performer who taught the industry one main point in the early days of the electric guitar era. With his square cigar box guitar, patented by...
Milton DeLugg wrote many remarkable and popular songs such as "Orange Colored Sky," recorded by Nat King Cole. He wrote TV theme songs and stacks of movie music. All the while, he was wor...
Joey DeFrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco single-handedly brought back the popularity of the Hammond B-3, beginning in the 1990s. Joey’s soulful approach echoes his heroes of the past such as Jim...
Murray Davison was a trumpet player who had a few gigs during the Big Band Era, but had to get a day job after the war. While he became a successful businessman, music was never far away....
Jim Cruickshank had an eye for design! While a proud member of the Fender guitar team, Jim designed many of the most memorable trade show displays for the company, including the 14-foot n...
Del Courtney was among the most popular Big Band leaders of the golden age of swing. Getting his start in the Al Hill Orchestra, Del soon found fame when he formed his own band at the Cla...
David Cooper recalled, with a warm smile, when his father took him to his first NAMM Show. The Cooper Piano and Organ Store in Georgia began in 1905; therefore, David did not just grow up...
Clifford Cooper has always liked the color orange. So, when it was time to market his amplifiers, which he created mostly for his own use and for friends, he decided to use his favorite c...
Dick Contino had a series of hit recordings and popular television appearances in the 1950s playing his trusty accordion. By the end of that decade, he was hired by M. H. Berlin at Chicag...
Charles Connor was a pioneer in the early beat of rock and roll. As a drummer in New Orleans in the early 1950s, he played with Professor Longhair and became the original drummer for Litt...
Joy Collins had a very successful career selling pianos and organs! In fact she may very well be the person who sold the most Allen Organs ever. Joy was hired by Glenn Davis, who owned a ...
Buddy Collette changed music in more than one way. As a noted reed man, he played jazz along some of the greatest players in history including his boyhood friend, Charlie Mingus. Buddy wa...
Martin Cohen loves drums and he loves drummers, but as we learned in our interview with him, he loves making drums for drummers even more! His impressive innovations and forward-thinking ...
Billy Cobham is the acclaimed drummer who was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society’s Hall of Fame in 2006. Billy was born in Panama but moved with his family to New York where he per...
Mike Clark helped established the funk-based drumming sound that emerged out of Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and 70s. In fact, his “The Funk Stops Here” was used fo...
Harvey Citron is one of the industry’s best-known and respected guitar luithers. Since a young age he has played the guitar and always seemed to have the ideas of changing the instrument...
