Ron Whittaker was just eleven years old when his father started a music retail store in Long Beach, California. Whittaker Music opened in 1946, just after World War II and Ron still remem...

Sal Cracchiolo learned how to play the trumpet on his mother’s horn. As his love of the instrument grew she saw to it that Sal received classical trumpet lessons with some of the top teac...

Dan Miller grew up with music all around him and joined the school band the first chance he got. Dan was the first to admit how fortunate he was to have opportunities to go to many clinic...

Ira Sullivan was just three years old when he pulled his father’s trumpet out from behind the couch and began blowing into it. His father began teaching him how to play and by the time li...

Luis Miranda often visited the Palladium Theater as a teenager to dance. During one visit, Luis was asked by a member of the band if he played the congas since their conga player was out ...

Wallace Roney attended the Anaheim NAMM Show in 2018, playing his Kanstul trumpet and taking time to sit down for an Oral History interview. He spoke of his love of the trumpet and some o...

Lalo Schifrin composed "Mission Impossible" for television and "Dirty Harry" for the movies (among others) and yet what seems to have brought him the most personal joy was his work and fr...

Ron Escheté grew up in and around Houma, Louisiana and, during his NAMM Oral History interview, said, “I was never taught the blues, it was just something all around all the time. Playing...

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...

Candido Camero was born in Cuba on April 22, 1921. By the age of four he was already interested in percussive instruments--a field he would revolutionize by blending Latin beats with jazz...

Antonio Sanchez began playing drums at the age of five in his native Mexico and by the time he was a teenager he was playing professionally. After graduating from Berklee College of Music...

Ron Modell is among the most popular musicians/school band directors in the United States. As a trumpeter he worked with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with jazz greats such ...

Jonah Jones endorsed the HN White King line of trumpets as well as the FE Olds products during his noted career as a jazzman beginning in the 1930s. Jonah played lead trumpet for Stuff Sm...

This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Milt Hinton was a beloved bass player whose career covered ...

This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Cab Calloway was the hip cat of the Big Band Era, leading a...

This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Trummy Young was a noted jazz trombonist who performed and ...