Harold Smith ran the Baldwin factory in Greenwood, Mississippi and became president of the famed piano company in the 1980s. In addition to the task of improving production and working co...
Elliot Fine is best known to percussion students for the method book he wrote with Marvin Dahlgren called 4-Way Coordination, which was first published in 1963. Over the years, he has pub...
Bobby Dukoff was a big band saxophone player during the swing era when he looked for ways of improving his own sound. While working for the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Bobby began playing hi...
Ed Cramer was the long time music attorney who played a vital role in ensuring the performance and composing rights of musicians and songwriters. His list of clients reads like a who’s wh...
Lester Wagner began in the woodworking and sanding department of the C.F. Martin & Company before World War II. He moved from the North Street Plant in 1964 to the bigger manufacturin...
Warren Price’s father started a small Canadian music retail store when Warren was just 17 years old. Soon after Warren purchased his first drum kit and discovered he wanted to join his fa...
Jim Marshall was in a full body cast as a 12-year-old boy due to polio. He managed to overcome the incredible odds to not only walk again, but also to become a trained tap dancer. He foun...
George Shorney’s grandfather formed a small music publishing company in 1892 with the goal of serving the church by printing hymnals. The company, Hope Publishing, has done just that and ...
Earl Scruggs was the father of bluegrass and country banjo playing. His style and techniques have been both influential and inspiring for generations of banjo players around the world. Hi...
George Douglas's grandfather opened a small music shop in Canada, which his father managed following his military service during World War II. The small store chugged along over the years...
James “Red” Holloway was an accomplished jazz saxophone player who began his love affair with music while a student of Captain Walter Dyette at DuSable High School in Chicago back in 1942...
Gerhard Keilwerth grew up loving the saxophone and dreaming of building his own line, which of course he did do to international success. The Keilwerth name has been synonymous with innov...
Chuck Barnhouse is the third generation to own and operate the C. L. Barnhouse Publishing Company. His grandfather established the firm in 1886 and over the years the company has commissi...
Rose Wernes Drake traveled with her husband, Ivor, when he became the second salesperson hired for the Winter Piano Company following World War II. He often said the company got two for t...
Johnny Davis had several key roles within the music products industry, which made his Oral History interview particularly meaningful for the NAMM collection as we seek to preserve our ind...
Tom Ostrander was the founder of Colonial Music in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Now a string of stores, the retail company began with the simple idea of providing top quality instruments to the area...
Bernie Kalban was one of the great veterans of the music publishing industry. Having worked in the era right after Tin Pan Alley, in the Brill Building and with many of the top firms, Ber...
Jack Linton followed in the footsteps of his father who formed the famed Linton oboes brand of musical instruments. The instruments have been handcrafted in Elkhart, Indiana, since the 19...
Ralph MacDonald grew up in Harlem, where he was exposed to many musical traditions. As a drummer, he focused on his African roots and as a songwriter he relied on his soulful understandin...
John Majeski Jr. was appropriately given the AMC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 for a long career as editor of the Music Trades Magazine. During John’s era, the Beatles came to Americ...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Bob Brookmeyer played trombone for several name big bands d...
Ed Roman opened a guitar store in Las Vegas after a successful career in the motorcycle industry. What he learned about that business and the customer base he found, he could easily apply...
Harold Moseley was hired by Charles Hansen in the 1960s at the height of the legendary music publisher’s innovative career. Harold was on hand when Hansen developed several now standard p...
Budd Johnson was a key member of the TEAC team that oversaw the development of the American branch of the company known as TASCAM. As a result Budd was there in the late 1960s through the...
William Tapia stood up in front of United States solders playing his ukulele and singing at the tender age of eight years old. He was entertaining the troops for World War I and did not s...
Lillian Siegh played a vital role in the inner workings of NAMM for over 35 years! William Gard hired Lillian as a secretary in 1949 and for a time she was the office manager before becom...
Himie Voxman was a band director nearly all his life. He studied chemistry in college but fell into music because jobs were hard for chemists to find in the days of the Great Depression. ...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Memo Bernabei led a popular society orchestra during the gr...
Roger Williams was known throughout the world for his countless albums and top ten hits as a solo pianist. He had a remarkable career in bridging rock and roll and in incorporating jazz a...
Frank Nelson played trumpet and cornet during the swing era, touring with Alvino Rey’s Orchestra among others. He arranged music for the bands, both small groups and the larger outfits an...
John McDermott could sure sell pianos! His knowledge of the products and his strong relationship with music retailers made him an ideal and successful sales rep. John worked for the Gulbr...
Russell Kephart enjoyed his years as a band director but found great satisfaction when he opened his own music store and could provide the service he felt band directors were missing. The...