Deceased
Lauren Keiser was a passionate music publisher. He worked with many of the top publishing companies over his long and distinguished career including Alfred, Cherry Lane, Carl Fischer and his own firm the Keiser Music Publishing Company. In 2012 he purchased Southern Music and renamed the company...
William Heese had a reputation like no other in the music publishing world, a reputation well deserved. Bill was not only a mainstay in the industry for over 40 years, he was a tireless promoter of the music publishing history. Bill played a vital role in several publishing associations including...
Murray Sunshine was a legend in the New York music retailing business. As an employee of Manny’s Music, hired by Manny himself, Murray witnessed first hand the growth of 48th Street as a music center for not only the country but the world. Murray later opened his own chain of stores on Long Island...
Candido Camero was born in Cuba on April 22, 1921. By the age of four he was already interested in percussive instruments--a field he would revolutionize by blending Latin beats with jazz. Working with other pioneers on the concepts of Latin Jazz, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Candido opened up the...
Stanley Jay always admired rare and special fretted musical instruments, so it came as no surprise when he and his friend, Haf Kuffner, opened a guitar shop on Staten Island in New York. They named the store the Mandolin Brothers. Over the years the store has become a hub for vintage instruments...
Bob Casey enjoyed a long career in pro audio and radio. It all began when he was four years old when he saw the large sound cones on his father’s truck. His father formed Edward P. Casey’s Sound System Company and became one of the early inventors of PA (Public Address) systems in New York. Over...
Bennett Reimer’s name is familiar to millions of music college students who have read his books, A Philosophy of Music Education and the Silver Burdett Music book that he co-authored. The text book and its four editions have pioneered music education and brought to prominence the concept of...
Gerald “Wig” Wiggins was a world renowned composer, arranger and jazz keyboardist. As an early pioneer in playing jazz on the Hammond B-3 organ, Wig had a strong interest in new and inventive sounds. His creatively can be heard in hundreds of recordings and motion pictures beginning in the 1930s....
Buddy Collette changed music in more than one way. As a noted reed man, he played jazz along some of the greatest players in history including his boyhood friend, Charlie Mingus. Buddy was instrumental in the birth of the Los Angeles jazz scene. Beginning in the late 1940s, Buddy set out to break...
Bobby Gordon, the jazz clarinetist who helped expand the New Orleans traditions to audiences around the world, was interviewed alongside his long time friend Bob Greene. The two men reunited for an interview and to play together at the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music in 2008. For decades,...