Bryan Bell was given the task of engineering a working synthesizer using all of Herbie Hancock’s favorite keyboards back in the early 1970s, well before MIDI. Herbie’s single instruction ...
Ron Carter’s name is listed in every jazz encyclopedia as a major influence on the bass. He recorded and performed with many of the greatest players in modern jazz and spoke with great d...
Ndugu Chancler cut his teeth as a jazz drummer but later expanded his scope to include the blues, pop, soul, and funk. As a jazz drummer, he worked with an incredible line up of artists o...
Billy Cobham is the acclaimed drummer who was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society’s Hall of Fame in 2006. Billy was born in Panama but moved with his family to New York where he per...
Chick Corea loved being a music maker! Nominated over 60 times for a Grammy, Chick was among the most high profile musicians we have been blessed to interview for the NAMM Oral History pr...
Billy Hart was born in Washington DC, where he was exposed to the drums at a young age. He worked with several R&B groups before landing an important gig with the jazz singer Shirley ...
Marshall Hawkins founded the Idyllwild Arts Jazz Program with the intention of giving young musicians the same kind of individual mentoring that he received while growing up in Washington...
Darryl Jones was born on the south side of Chicago into a musical family. His father taught him drums and xylophone at 7 years old. But when Jones saw his neighbor, Angus Thomas, playing ...
Hubert Laws Jr. is an American flutist and saxophonist with a rich family history in the music industry. Specializing in jazz and classical, Hubert started playing the flute in high schoo...
Cecil McBee studied clarinet in elementary school and was inspired by the encouragement of his band director. He knew from that young age that he wanted a career in music. When he was a t...
Jason Miles is the musician and composer who took advantage of the developing synthesizer technology in the 1970s and 80s to create unique sounds for such artists as Chaka Khan, Michael J...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Gerry Mulligan helped define the Cool Jazz genre with his r...
Larry Ramirez had a fascinating career in music! As a trumpet player he landed his dream job designing instruments for many of his childhood heroes! While working for Leblanc, Larry was a...
Mickey Raphael grew up with a passion for music and was recruited to play sousaphone and tuba in his high-school marching band. While this was his excuse to get out of gym class, Mickey r...
Larry Redhouse grew up in a house with six siblings who were all, like their mother, very musical. The family formed a musical act, the Redhouse Band, in the late 60s. The band played a l...
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...
TM Stevens was a prominent figure in the music industry, celebrated for both his design and endorsement of musical products and his illustrious career as a musician. His passion for encou...
Toots Thielemans enjoyed an incredible career as both a jazz guitarist and a jazz harmonica player. In fact, it is Toots who is credited for bringing the harmonica to jazz. He has perform...
Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineer for countless jazz records beginning in the 1940s. To say he was a pioneer seems like an understatement when you take into consideration not onl...
Vince Wilburn, Jr., was born in Chicago and began playing the drums on pots and pans as early as five years old. His uncle, Miles Davis, encouraged young Vince to listen to the great dr...
