John Keal was one of the very few who attended the Conn band instrument repair school in Elkhart, enrolling in the school just after World War II. The program only lasted a few years, but...
Professor Fritz Sennheiser was the head of an engineering team of German scientists assembled right after World War II to improve the function of the electronic microphone. Using his inno...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Lena Horne was a popular singer and actress who was dedicat...
Dr. Richard Brittain was invited to a small gathering of music educators in the months following World War II. The original goal of the meeting was to provide a venue for the music educat...
Irwin Rabinowitz was personally hired by Irving Berlin to create the lead plates for the famed songwriter's sheet music. Irwin's craft was hand chiseling each note, each slur, and coda in...
Gil Ellman grew up in the big band era, loving the sounds of large orchestras. He was motivated to create as many opportunities for students to make music as possible. He studied band ins...
Keith Wilson helped design and manufacture the famed SM57 and SM58 microphones for Shure back in the early 1960s. As an engineer, Keith later came up with the idea of creating a system fo...
Jackie Mills as a drummer put down the beat for jazz and big band stars such as Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday. As a record producer, he played a critica...
Jeanne Bundy-Morrow was only married to Frank Bundy a few months when her father-in-law, the pioneering instrument designer George Bundy, passed away. Because Jeanne had known George for ...
Dean Burtch was a past president of the world famous music publisher and retailer JW Pepper. The company was formed in 1876 and was purchased in 1941 by a group of businessmen headed by H...
John Beltrandi served as a road rep for Kaman Music on the east coast for over 40 years. He traveled mostly in Massachusetts and Connecticut and helped pioneer the Ovation guitar, which w...
Marge Levin was the secret behind the great success of Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Maryland, a fact Mr. Levin was proud to admit. Marge was born in Washington DC and met Chuc...
Art Van Damme became one of the biggest stars of the 1950s with a 15-minute radio and TV program, a noted role in the NBC orchestra, and many miscellaneous recordings, all-centering on hi...
Jake Hanna was the epitome of what a big band drummer is all about. Jake started playing drums at five in a drum corps in the Boston area. He continued to play drums in the bands of Harry...
Herbert Newton opened his piano store in 1939, a few years after becoming a piano tuner in the Norfolk area. Back in the beginning of the store, traveling out to nearby farms was key to h...
Martha Markowitz married her knight-in-shining-armor right after World War II. She soon helped him run the small organ company he started before the war. The Allen Organ Company has been ...
Ed Thigpen, known as Mr. Taste for his remarkable touch and feel as an innovative drummer, had a few (hundred) tricks up his musical sleeves when it came to brush work on the snare drums ...
Lowell Kiesel, as the founder of the southern California guitar company Carvin, joined the ranks with Leo Fender, Paul A. Bigsby, and the Rickenbacker Company, in establishing the new era...
Larry Bearce formed Reston Music in northern Virginia in the 1960s and later opened several locations in the area. One key to the store’s success was the man himself. He was a dedicated m...
Peter Heid enjoyed his career playing with many of the dance bands of the 1930s and 1940s in his hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin. After the war, he used his love of music to open a small ...
Ray Jent sought to bring service to the Lubbock, Texas, community when he opened a music retail store just after serving in World War II. Ray worked closely with the school band directors...
Wilbur Fuller took to woodwork at a young age. When he was 16, from the instructions in a magazine, he made a desk, which still stands in the corner of his small farmhouse in western Mic...
Neil A. Kjos, Jr. took over the music publishing company that his father, Neil A. Kjos, Sr. had formed in 1936. He began by developing and adding the best-selling Bastien Piano publicati...
Terry Bingley was a leader in the Canadian Music Products Industry for several decades. He began his career when he formed a music retail store before working with Yamaha and, later, serv...
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...
Ben Jack was born and raised in Arkansas, so it was no surprise that the passionate steel pedal guitarist would open up a string of successful stores in and around Fayetteville. As one of...
Gordon Keller owned and operated a string of piano stores in and around northern Virginia and became a much-celebrated figure in the area due to his work at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Tr...
Lee O’Connor was a noted trombone player in the golden era of the big bands. His experience on the radio, traveling from town to town for name and territory bands, reflected the struggles...
Vic Mizzy wrote a number of hit songs for popular music, movies and television beginning in the 1940s. He wrote “The Jones Boy” for the Mills Brothers and is perhaps best known for writin...
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 grea...
Lucien Wulsin’s grandfather was taught the piano business by D. W. Baldwin, the founder of the world-famous piano company. What he learned was passed down to his son, who, like his father...
Les Paul will forever be known for his role in the popularity of the electric guitar, the design of the Gibson Les Paul guitar, the multi track recording, the early guitar effects, and hi...
