music historians

Paul Bierley is the leading expert and author on the life and music of John Philip Sousa. A passionate fan of band music, Paul noticed several elements of Sousa’s career that were not documented. With his own publishing company, he penned several books on the March King’s life, including unearthed volumes of Sousa’s own photographs and manuscripts that otherwise may have been forever lost.

Q David Bowers contributed greatly to the archiving of the music products industry. As an author, he researched and published several books on the early era of mechanical instruments. His 1972 publication, The Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments, has become the definitive reference source on the topic. Along the way he also saved an enormous and invaluable collection of vintage trade magazines dating back to the 1880s from being lost. Those materials have since been scanned by the NAMM Resource Center, thanks to Mr.

John Boylan is best known as a hit-making record producer working with Charlie Daniels, Linda Ronstadt, Boston and the Little River Band. In addition to his successful career, John has a passion for the history of electronic and recording equipment. He has studied the roots of recording gear and its development over the last one hundred years. In recent years John has worked on several movie projects including “Born on the Fourth of July” and the TV program, Elmopalooza. 

Walter Carter wrote the book on the Gibson Guitar Company’s history. Along the way, he developed friendships with many of the old timers who worked the assembly line before “assembly line” was even a popular term. He spent months researching what was thought to be true to confirm it. Along the way, he fought to showcase those efforts of innovators and engineers whose work would otherwise be lost and unnoted. Walter became the first historian for Gibson and worked hard to do what is so important in our industry--preserve it.
 

Sam Hinton was a national treasure. It seems appropriate to use that term when talking about him because he become an important and invaluable preservationist of some of our nation's greatest treasures, folk songs. Sam spent many years traveling the backwoods of this country in search of traditional songs that surely would have been lost without his efforts. As early as 1947, Sam recorded his favorite folk songs for the Library of Congress.

Paul Johnson formed one of the early surf bands in Southern California during the golden era of instrumental music. As a guitarist and songwriter, Paul performed and recorded in the days before the Beach Boys, when it was common for an instrumental recording to be on the Top Ten lists. Over the years Paul has written about the surf bands and the many hits that came from that era. He has performed over the years as much to play the music he loves as he does to bring the music to younger generations.
 

Brian Kehew played a big role in the Museum of Making Music’s 2009-2010 Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Bob Moog exhibit, which provided the NAMM Resource Center a chance to interview him for this Oral History program. Brian discussed his personal background in music and the development of his personal interest and love for electronic music and synthesizers. Brian spoke of his friendship with Bob Moog and other leaders of the industry as well as his thoughts on milestone products during the heyday of MIDI and sound synthesis. Of course, this leaves many topics for us to cover in a second (and third) interview with Brian in the years ahead. 

Mark Vail has preserved some of the music products industry’s greatest history as author and researcher of a series of publications. In 1993, BackBeat Books published Mark’s landmark book Vintage Synthesizers. Four years later the same publishers released his The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B. Both books provided great insight into the topics and provided recognition to developers and engineers who for years did not receive the recognition they deserved.  

Lynn Wheelwright has always been fascinated with the guitar, especially the craft of building the instrument. After performing as a teenager, he developed many of his luthier skills from repairing guitars in his own shop. After befriending Alvino Rey in the 1980s and repairing several of Mr. Rey’s instruments, Lynn began studying the history of vintage guitars. In recent years he has provided lectures and written articles about vintage guitars all the while researching all he can about the history of the guitar.  

Marilea Zajec and her husband Victor became the historians for the Midwest Band Clinic and over the years collected and wrote of the importance of the annual events impact on music education around the world. Victor attended the first program in 1946 and Marilea’s first Midwest was as a performer in 1961. Together the couple wrote the 50th anniversary book and promoted the history of the school music programs as often as possible. Victor served on the Midwest board and was also the historian for the American Bandmaster Association before his passing in 2005.