Library - In Memoriam
Remembering oral history interviewees who have passed away.
Buddy DeFranco’s clarinet style helped to legitimize the instrument in the post-swing era as a modern jazz instrument and his techniques have been a major influence on performers ever since the late 1940s.
Andy Shearer along with this dear wife Rowena, opened Shearers Music store in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1963. The couple began with a modest inventory but grew to include top brands of musical instruments, a well-respected sheet music department and in the early days, stereo syst
Chip Young was one of the best known recording session guitarists in Nashville. His thumb picking style can be heard on countless recordings and hundreds of hit records made in Nashville between the early 1960s into the 2000s.
John Fry was the founder of Ardent Records and a noted recording engineer with a special talent for sound mixing and studio sound control.
Phil Passin began working for Carl Fischer in 1947 in the shipping department, where he took a deep interest in the industry. After serving in the US Army during the Korean War, Phil returned to Carl Fischer where he began working his way up in the company. When the company sol
Bob Sperzel’s grandfather and father were both mechanical engineers working in their own shops creating machine parts for several industries. As Bob learned from them he discovered on his own a real need for machined parts to be improved for turning keys for guitars.
John Hampton was a Grammy winning engineer at the Ardent Studios in Memphis, where he worked side by side with the studio's founder, John Fry. The studio recorded a long list of artists from Stax in the early days when Mr. Fry opened the business.
William Kent, along with his brother Ed, formed the Kent Drum Company in 1947 with a focus to create student-level kits to encourage music making at all economic levels. The company offered professional-level drums as well as other products such as the tambourine.
Vern Schafer joined the family business of moving pianos as a teenager, but had the dream of running his own piano store. While still running the Schafer Piano Movers Company, Vern set out to learn all he could about the ins and outs of the piano retail business.
Hugh Goldsmith was hired by the Mason-Risch Piano Company of Canada when he was still a teenager in 1937. Times were difficult during the depression era and into the war years when Hugh enlisted into the Canadian Air Force. After the war he returned to the industry and worked as a traveling sales rep for nearly 30 years as well as a retailer and piano manufacture.