Keith Holzman cut his teeth as a theater director and lighting designer in New York. In 1964 he joined Elektra Records, which his brother Jac formed back in 1950. Keith coordinated produc...
Marty Sheller was the award-winning arranger and jazz trumpeter whose musical skills can be heard on hundreds of recordings. He worked with Mongo Santamaria for many years (yes, that is M...
Tony Newton was nicknamed “Baby Funk Brother” by the original studio musicians at Motown Records where he began working in 1964. His first session with the Funk Brothers was the song “Bab...
Tony Ferguson has had an amazing career in music! He began playing guitar at a young age growing up in England, touring with bands such as Unit 4 + 2 and Christie before switching to the ...
Jerry Greenberg began his long and successful musical career in 1957 when his band Jerry Green and the Passengers began recording. Within a few years he had established Seaboard Distribut...
Robert Hobbs is very proud of his father’s role in music. His father, Revis Hobbs, was a radio engineer for station WSM and later created the r/f switch for radio frequency stability. In ...
Doug Williams heard his father singing as far back as he can remember. As a member of the Big Five gospel group, his father encouraged his children to sing in church. Doug sang with his t...
Tommy Couch was born in Tuscumbia, not too far from Muscle Shoals, Alabama and grew up with many of the studio musicians and engineers at the Fame Recording Studio. He later moved to Jack...
Wolf Stephenson met Tommy Couch (the founder of Malaco Records) while the two studied pharmacy in college. They began booking musical acts for their college parties and soon expanded to e...
Bonnie Guitar produced a series of hit recordings for her label, Dolton, in the 1950s and 60s. Among the labels most popular acts were the Fleetwoods and the Ventures. Bonnie even recorde...
Stephen Pearl was inspired while working with Irv Kratka at Music Minus One to create a series of recordings of Broadway musicals that would provide background music for singers. In 1997,...
Don Blocker worked behind the music, promoting and selling for several record companies over his long and impressive career. First working for Dot Records, Don learned the craft, which he...
Bill Gardner grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by music. His mother worked at a local record store where he heard the music that would forever shape his life. Years later, Bill went on th...
Jim Merod is the founder of BluePort Sound recording studio and BluePort Jazz, his record label. Since the early 1990s, Jim has recorded a long list of legendary jazz, blues, and latin mu...
Don Puluse played clarinet as a young student and went on to play in the Marine Band. He soon began to study recording engineering and joined AES in 1958. Less than a decade later, Don fo...
Bob Koester was the founder of the Delmark label who began recording blues and jazz in 1953 in St. Louis. He later moved to Chicago where he helped define the music scene by recording art...
Ralph Peer II is the Chairman and CEO of Peermusic, which was formed by his father in 1928. While his father played a historic role in early-recorded music, the publishing company is equa...
Quinton Claunch was a musical innovator who formed Hi Records in Memphis as well as the Goldwax label. He played guitar and bass professionally beginning in 1943 and can be heard on a num...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jerry Wexler became a major contributor to the record business in the 1950s and 60s...
