Chico Fernandez was born in Toronto and began playing drums at the age of three. He studied piano at eight and later reconnected with the drums, playing in local bands both on stage and i...
Linda Kitchen is the daughter of Bill May, the founder of Maton Guitars. Bill established the guitar company in 1946, which has since become an important producer of acoustic and electric...
Michael Coleman and his wife formed a music store near Melbourne in 1989. Today, Cranbourne Music, remains a family business with their three children's involvement. An early milestone of...
Tony Hosking grew up surrounded by music. His father, Ray, was a respected studio session trumpeter and helped young Tony land his first job in the brass department of Allan's Music store...
Colin Steel is the founder of Keyboard Corner and KC's Rock Shop, both located in Melbourne, Australia. Colin began his career in music retail at Brash's Music in 1968 during the great ho...
Barry Croll played a vital role in the expansion of music education throughout Australia. Playing music since he was five and having performed for troops in Asia, as well as clubs all aro...
Mike Daws moved to Melbourne from England in 1974 where his brother-in-law, a drummer, introduced him to Billy Hyde. Billy was a well-known drummer who helped his son, Garry, run a succes...
Garry Hyde opened a small music store under his parent’s house back in 1962. Having a very famous musician as a father, he asked to use his dad's name for the store. Billy Hyde was a note...
Tony Fenelon cut his teeth on the Theatre Organ and became the artist in residence at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne in the early 1960s. He recalls performing demos at the NAMM Shows beg...
Joe Lamberti worked in his Father and Uncle's music business as a kid and saw many changes over the years. His Uncle Tony opened a small music retail store in the early 1940s and his fath...
Peter Sullivan grew up in a musical home with both his mother and father playing piano. Peter played piano, ukulele, as well as double bass as a youngster and became passionate about play...
Bruce Rowland is the skillful film composer who scored the music for the movie "The Man from Snowy River." He was still a teenager when he was playing piano to big bands and jazz groups a...
Peter Trojkovic was the sound engineer for the band his two brothers, Luke and Drago, formed in the 1970s. Peter soon expanded his duties to managing and securing the audio gear needed fo...
Drago Trojkovic and his brother, Luke, formed a band in Melbourne that soon employed their brother Peter to run the sound. As more sound gear was needed, Peter established a Live Sound re...
Abraham Laboriel has often been called the most recorded bass player of all time. Bass Player Magazine placed him on their top 50 bass players list and listed Abraham as having performed ...
Dave Bray began working in the music industry when he joined the Billy Hyde team in the 1970s. Hyde had a strong drum shop at the time and was just expanding into wholesaling, thanks in l...
Lindsay Stodden's career in the music and audio industry has had to do far more with helping his customers find the right product for their needs rather than pushing a given make and mode...
Max Cooke was an Australian classically trained pianist and professor who wrote a series of method books to assist his students. He began teaching piano students at the University of Melb...
This is the full length NAMM Oral History interview with Tsutomu Katoh, which was captured on October 16, 2006. For his biography and web clip, please follow the link: https://ww1.namm.or...
Abel Sanchez is the noted restoration expert for such piano brands as Steinway and Chickering. Abel was born and raised in northern Mexico on the cattle ranch along with seven brothers. B...
Dave Shadoan is the president of Sound Image, one of the largest Live Sound companies in the world. His longtime partner and good friend, Ross Ritto, formed Silverfish Audio with Joel Sil...
Jody Stephens, along with three of his friends, formed the influential rock band Big Star and went on to recording several albums with the band. The band cut their early demos and all of ...
Jerry Masters grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he heard his mother playing piano in church as far back as he could remember. After serving in the US Army, Jerry formed his own rock...
Larry Byrom recalls hearing Louis Armstrong as a young kid and wanting to play the trumpet, so he did for a few years. Then, he saw Chet Atkins on television and by 14 years old began pla...
Kevin Lamb distinctly remembers sitting in a music class when the subject of music publishing came up and thinking, "I never want to do that." After some forty years in the music publishi...
Donna Jean Godchaux was the only female singer with the Grateful Dead (on stage and on recordings) from 1971 until 1979. In fact, she was the first female singer with the group and was on...
Gary Baker watched the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show along with his brother. The two became so engrossed by music that his brother bought Gary a Silver Tone Guitar from Sears. T...
Spooner Oldham was a studio musician down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama before becoming a noted songwriter. Spooner's keyboard skills can be heard on such classic records as "You'd Better Mov...
Alan Schulman was a freelance recording engineer who worked in many of the top studios in Muscle Shoals and Nashville. Bassist Norbert Putnam called Alan, "Mr. Golden Ears" for his skillf...
Steve Marcantonio began working as an assistant engineer in the New York Record Plant in 1978. He worked on the Blues Brothers project as well as with John Lennon and Yoko. Sadly, Steve w...
