Mike Smith, the jazz saxophonist who toured with Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, and Frank Sinatra, is also closely associated with the music products industry. Mike plays an important role...
Jimmy Bowen is the successful record producer whose musical career began as a Rockabilly recording artist and songwriter. He formed a trio right out of high school and created a songwriti...
Susan Mazer and her husband, Dallas Smith, established the C.A.R.E. Channel, which serves over a thousand hospitals by providing peaceful and relaxing music 24 hours a day. Their goal was...
Bob Baca teaches trumpet and is the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he approaches his teaching from not only the standpoint of a musician but fro...
Morris Diamond sat down with us for his NAMM Oral History interview at the age of 97 and recalled his career in music which started when he was 15 years old. He was hired to be the “band ...
Gene (Cip) Cipriano began his musical career with the big bands led by such stars as Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and Tex Beneke. He later moved to Los Angeles where he soon began his incre...
Jim Horn, part of the “Wrecking Crew”, started playing the saxophone as a child and eventually expanded his musical reach to include the flute, oboe, and French horn, even playing the obo...
Ivor Davis was working as the foreign correspondent for the London Daily Express when he was assigned to travel with the Beatles. He joined the Fab Four during the summer of 1964 in San F...
Frank De Vito was the drummer and percussionist in the studios in Hollywood known as the Wrecking Crew. His long career as a jazz player gave him the chance to work with Charlie Parker, ...
Pat Rizzo heard Sly Stone was looking for a sax player to join the band. He went backstage at a concert with his horn and Sly told him to go into the bathroom. Sly asked if he was good a...
Lee Donais may be the only industry member who played piano (as part of the Navy Band) for three United States Presidents: Johnson, Nixon and Ford. After his career with the Navy Band, L...
Al Schmitt’s career as a recording engineer covered more than 60 years of innovations in pro audio development in nearly every musical style. Al was the recording engineer for many musica...
Trini Lopez became an early Latin-American pop singer with a string of recordings in the late 1950s and 60s including "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." Frank Sinatra took him under hi...
Lowell Simpson spent his entire life in music. As a child he played music as well as sang and in fact, continued to sing over the decades even after working as a sales manager for several...
Hal Blaine was perhaps the most recorded drummer from the California recording studios of the 1950s-'70s. His influential style can be heard on more than 170 number one hit songs and 450...
Donald Kahn recalled the moment he first realized he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a songwriter. It was as a five-year old child playing under his father’s piano a...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Joe Bushkin was involved with jazz at a very critical time ...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Red Norvo was often surprised at the influence his vibrapho...
