Deceased
Joe Cardinale played jazz bass in clubs and theaters all around New England. He created his own trio and studied at what would be Berklee College of Music. He joined the wholesaler Harris-Fandel in the pre-Beatles era and witnessed first hand the impact the British Invasion had on the industry....
Edith De Forest was associated with the Pratt-Read Company for over 70 years! She began working for the piano keys and action manufacturer in the early 1930s. Even after her retirement in the 1980s, she continued to work for the company’s museum. She later served as the company historian doing all...
John Beltrandi served as a road rep for Kaman Music on the east coast for over 40 years. He traveled mostly in Massachusetts and Connecticut and helped pioneer the Ovation guitar, which was not well accepted when it was first introduced, but built up a strong audience in the early years. The...
Bunny Kacher began volunteering at the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music in 2002 as part of the second docent training class (the museum opened in 2000). Her love of music is easy to detect when taking one of her tours at the museum and, in fact, that love of music goes back to her days as a...
Mirek Jaromir Strizka opened a musical wholesale business in the early 1960s and named it European Craft. The company began as the young Czech immigrant established a business in Los Angeles, California, selling one instrument, the harmonica. He wore out his car traveling the country and...
Delores Rhoads began teaching music in 1939. Seventy years later when she was interviewed by NAMM, she was still teaching. After World War II Delores and her husband opened a small teaching studio and retail shop in North Hollywood, California, called Musonia. Over the decades she taught thousands...
Hal David followed in the footsteps of his older brother Mack, who penned several popular songs in the 1930s and 40s. Hal worked hard to learn the craft and spent many years in and around the Brill Building in New York, which was the hub of music publishing in America at the time. After a number of...
Howard Rumsey may have played the first electric bass to be recorded on a jazz recording. While performing with Stan Kenton’s first orchestra in the early fall of 1941, Howard was asked by the bandleader to experiment with a new electric bass. The instrument had no name on it and Howard was never...
Alfredo Flores was born in Mexico in 1908 and moved to San Antonio, Texas with his mother and grandmother when he was a small boy. He took several jobs as a young man including a position with the Thomas Goggan piano company. His experience with the piano company provided Mr. Flores with the idea...
Jim Dunlop started the Dunlop Manufacturing company in 1965 in Benicia, California, and followed his dream to provide quality products for fellow musicians. Along the way he created the Dunlop Cry Baby, an innovative wah-wah pedal for the electric guitar. Jim focused on the accessories market and...