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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

TM Stevens is a well known character within the music industry who is respected for his design and endorsement of products as well as his mega career as a musician. TM is also beloved for...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...