Donna Reed wanted to continue to provide music lessons even after retiring from teaching in a traditional school setting. After 30 years as a music education teacher in the public schools...
Jesse Robinson grew up in Benton, Mississippi, the son of a Holiness Preacher. His father was always very encouraging of Jesse and his music, which was a major source of empowerment for t...
Duncan Goff was a band director in Mississippi for 33 years. His first teaching job, at a junior high school, showed Duncan he was in the right line of work as it was a meaningful experie...
Marc Johnson was a band director for 27 years and in retirement felt he could help the younger generation of directors. While working for Mississippi Music as a school road rep, Marc has ...
Sam Hart’s father was a preacher who sang with his siblings as the Hart Brothers. Sam grew up surrounded by music and was encouraged to join the school band in the sixth grade. In 1975, a...
Doug Williams heard his father singing as far back as he can remember. As a member of the Big Five gospel group, his father encouraged his children to sing in church. Doug sang with his t...
Jason Stanfield has always enjoyed finding new and funny sounds, which means he really enjoyed the synthesizer developments of the 1990s! He worked for Mississippi Music in Hattiesburg, M...
Richie Jones Jr. began playing drums professionally when he was 12 years old for teen clubs and skating rinks. While gigging, he developed skills in production and worked for Morris Broth...
David Schommer was playing in the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band when he approached the conductor, David Miller, and inquired about forming a swing band. David had the vision of a s...
David Miller is the band director who had the vision of a musical outlet for adult musicians in mostly non-music careers when he helped establish the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band....
James Evans met one of his musical heroes, Louie Lee, in 1977. Mr. Lee took the time to show James techniques in playing his saxophone that greatly inspired him. Over the years he develop...
Jerry Mannery enjoyed writing poems and was encouraged by a college professor to set his words to music. When one of his songs was performed by the legacy choir director, Frank Williams, ...
Bobby Rush won his first GRAMMY at the age of 83 in 2017, some sixty years after his first professional gig as a bluesman. Beginning in the 1950s, Bobby performed live and recorded in Chi...
Wolf Stephenson met Tommy Couch (the founder of Malaco Records) while the two studied pharmacy in college. They began booking musical acts for their college parties and soon expanded to e...
Tommy Couch was born in Tuscumbia, not too far from Muscle Shoals, Alabama and grew up with many of the studio musicians and engineers at the Fame Recording Studio. He later moved to Jack...
Jerome F. Murphy Sr. was the president of M. Steinert & Sons in Boston. He joined the company on January 10, 1897 and dedicated himself to the business and the industry. He was promot...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Carl Wilson co-formed The Beach Boys with his brother, Brian, and school friend, Al...
Leo Adelman spent much of his life playing the jazz trumpet. In retirement, he spends a great deal of time playing and promoting jazz throughout San Diego County. When the NAMM Oral Histo...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Colin Sanders began building sound systems for churches when he was still a teenage...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Al Jardine can be heard on the very first Beach Boys recording. The song, “Surfin’”...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jerry Wexler became a major contributor to the record business in the 1950s and 60s...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Narada Walden formed Tarpan Studios in San Rafael, California in 1985. Over the yea...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Phil Ramone was an audio legend! His success as a studio owner and producer helped ...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Tony Bennett, the legendary jazz and pop music singer, provided his thoughts about ...
Robin Galison is the founder and president of Music Gift located in Boca Raton, Florida. The company began as a division of the Edwin F. Kalmus Music Publishers, which her husband’s famil...
Alex Ordonez was eight years old when he began playing the piano. He was the first in his family to play music and was encouraged by his parents. Although he later focused his time on spo...
Sigrun Jantzen has been playing piano and cello since her childhood and holds a Ph.D. in History of Fine Arts. She has also worked for a book publisher which focuses on classical music bo...
Lauri Knapton is the founder of Knapton Musik Knotes in Janesville, Wisconsin. The store, which was established in 2000, provides musical instruments, lessons, and a long list of communit...
Brian Shepard is deeply entrenched in the rich history of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), offering insightful reflections during his NAMM Oral History interview. He eloque...
Matt Keiser was strongly encouraged to play music as a child, after all his father is composer and music publisher, Lauren Keiser! Matt played bass in high school and began taking a stron...
