Paul Ash had great memories of his father, Sam Ash, the founder of Sam Ash Music in New York. Paul enjoyed the years he worked with his father and credited him for his knowledge of the mu...
Pete Seeger was the American folk icon who made it a personal goal to bring peace to the world by getting people to sing! His role in the folk music movement, beginning in the 1930's, fo...
Harry West was the founder of Fine Musical Instruments located in Statesville, North Carolina. The store was an early pioneer in vintage stringed instrument sales and in fact, Stanley Ja...
Milton Kyser was raised in a small, poor farming family in East, Texas. He grew up during the Great Depression and in fact as a boy told himself if he ever had a business of his own he w...
Bob Rufkahr's long career in the music business began in retail in 1962! He later moved into wholesale and manufacturing before he formed his own company, Image Marketing in 1980. Along...
Ben McKlveen had a very colorful life as a service man during World War II and a piano technician who cared for the instruments of many top performers and orchestras. He played oboe in th...
Cham-Ber Huang designed one of the best-known classical harmonicas in the world. His instruments are used in most classical works and by those who recognize the skillful design and qualit...
Jimmy Gibbs opened the very first crate containing a Hammond B-3 in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Several years later, at the height of the Cold War, Jimmy brought the famous organ to ...
Stanley Lager formed Dale Electronics Corporation in New York City in 1956. The company, well known as Dale Pro Audio, was among the very first to fill the growing electronic needs of ven...
John Wessel was born in Holland and recalled with a stern face his World War II memories of running from the Nazi's. He was just one step ahead of the SS on several occasions. After the w...
Richard Webb’s grandfather opened a pawnshop in England and his father, Sydney, developed a small music division within the shop some 20 years later. Since the age of 12, Richard thought ...
Babe Simoni began working for the Fender Guitar Company in 1953. He was a teenager when George Fullerton hired him to work on the factory floor. Babe’s father had worked in the plant just...
Sam Ulano was the drum teacher, performer, method book author and drum shop owner whose name became synonymous with the world of drumming. During his long and celebrated career, Sam play...
Bobby Gordon, the jazz clarinetist who helped expand the New Orleans traditions to audiences around the world, was interviewed alongside his long time friend Bob Greene. The two men reuni...
Leland Smith was the renowned founder of computerized musical notation. He came to symbolize the technological changes in print music beginning in the 1960s. His work as a professor and e...
Jim Leonard was first and foremost a band director. It was the job he always dreamed of as a child and the job for which he gained the love and respect from tens of thousands of students....
George Riley is an embodiment of the passion so often found in the music products industry. George worked side by side the founder of Electro-Voice, Al Kahn, during the major expansion ye...
Vanetta Wilson was the fourth generation owner of her family’s music business. Chesbro Music began in 1911 as a music retailer and expanded over the years to become one of the largest mus...
Robert Levin was the youngest of Chuck and Marge Levin’s three children, literally growing up in the store. From his earliest memories, he can remember observing and learning his father...
Art Kubera began taking accordion lessons when he was eight years old growing up in Buffalo, New York. His love of music continued to develop and within a few years he was playing in sch...
Bennett Reimer’s name is familiar to millions of music college students who have read his books, A Philosophy of Music Education and the Silver Burdett Music book that he co-authored. The...
Denzil Jacobs provided detailed and insightful stories of the piano industry in England from the 1930s into the 1980s. With a gentlemanly manner, Mr. Jacobs provided historical informatio...
Jane Stanton worked for the war effort during World War II, which was before she met Ken Stanton, who was a band director, wishing to open a music store. Jane played a vital role in the s...
Leif Juhl has had quite a life in music! As a boy, he picked up a trumpet – the instrument he still played in his early 90s when his oral history interview was completed at his Arizona ho...
Bill Lawrence was known for his pick-up design and his long career as a German based guitarist. In fact, when visiting the Framus Museum in Markneukirchen Germany, you can learn of his in...
Andy Moseley was right next to his brother's side when they took a loan for $500 to start a guitar company they called Mosrite! The legendary guitar brand became a vital part of the boom ...
Roland Janes! There were musicians/engineers/producers and then there was Roland Janes! The man nearly single-handedly invented many of the engineering methods used in modern recordings...
Bob Greene made a name for himself as he expanded the legacy of Jelly Roll Morton. Growing up in New York and playing piano from an early age, Bob became a well-known jazz performer whose...
Red Dog Weber saw a pogo-cello during the NAMM show in the early 1950s and thought if there was a percussive version of this instrument he could play it with his band and have a lot of fu...
Imero Fiorentino was considered by many the father of pro-lighting! He began his career just as television was coming into its own in the early 1950s. He worked on live broadcast with new...
William Reynolds made his career designing signs and even a few monuments in and around Bismarck, North Dakota. In 1977 he was hired by Bill and Mary Ann Eckroth to design their now famo...
James Decker had been an active music maker ever since performing with his mother on radio broadcasts while he was a child. Over the years, he continued his pursuit of music study and eve...