Oral History - all
San Pao Chen is the General Manager for Taye Drums in Taiwan. Mr. Chen was interviewed during the NAMM Show in 2013 and provided great insight into how the company was formed and his views on the growth of the product lines, as well as his friendships throughout the industry. His passion for... more
Alvin Chea is the bass for the singing group Take 6. Alvin joined the group five years after they were formed and soon became an important element in their unique sound. During their career the group has sold millions of recordings and has won countless awards, including ten Grammy Awards. The... more
Dave Biro became fascinated with electronic music the second he watched Rick Wakeman perform in the late 1960s. He soon set off on an odyssey to create his own instrument. Dave worked to develop a synthesizer that would respond faster than those available at the time and increase the... more
Ben Ash began working for his family’s store before he can remember. He is the fourth generation of Ash family members to work in the company that was formed by his great-grandfather, Sam Ash. In addition, Ben is the third generation Ash to be interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program, a... more
Charles Ahlers began working for the Anaheim Visitor and Convention Bureau as President in the 1990s after a strong career in several other markets. He took pride in looking back at the growth of the NAMM Trade Show and the fact that his team worked hard to accommodate the needs of the show over... more
Tom Schmitt is the CEO and Chairman of Schmitt Music Company, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1896. The company, which now has several locations throughout the Midwest, has been an innovative retailer within the music products industry. Tom spoke of his family roots and how the... more
Honoring Keith Mardak for his invaluable service in assisting the NAMM Resource Center in obtaining fantastic interview contributions to the NAMM Oral History Program.
This video contains some of the highlight interviews that Keith helped us gather over the years. Thanks Keith!
Honoring Dennis Houlihan for his invaluable service in assisting the NAMM Resource Center in obtaining fantastic interview contributions to the NAMM Oral History Program.
This video contains some of the highlight interviews that Dennis helped us gather over the years. Thanks Dennis!
Honoring George Gruhn for his invaluable service in assisting the NAMM Resource Center in obtaining fantastic interview contributions to the NAMM Oral History Program.
This video contains some of the highlight interviews that George helped us gather over the years. Thanks George!
This video is of our annual NAMM Tribute, created in honor of our members and music industry friends who passed away in 2012 and early 2013. This Tribute was shown for the first time at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California in January 2013. All moving images within this video indicate those who... more
Birth Date: October 9, 1922
Deceased Date: September 3, 2015
Yoshinori Kimbara was a former Yamaha Japan Corporation executive who worked under Genichi Kawakami beginning in the 1950s. He was the first general manager of the Yamaha Music Foundation, which was created to strengthen music education in Japan. Kimbara-San was associated with recreational music... more
Bill Brandom enjoyed playing piano as a kid and was even voted “most musical” in high school. He later was given a book on piano tuning, which changed his life because he realized it would be his passion. He attended a piano tuning school and opened his own shop in Kansas City before being asked... more
DJ Johnny Juice is perhaps best known for his work on such records as “Rebel Without a Pause” with Public Enemy and “Musica Negra” with Rob Swift. The musical integrity of his contributions to Hip Hop cannot be overstated. In addition to perfecting the art of scratching, Johnny Juice approaches... more
DJ GrandWizzard Theodore is world famous for inventing the signature sound of Hip Hop, The Scratch, and he was around 13 years old at the time! The story of how this came about 1975 is a funny one of fate, but it was by no means his only contribution to Hip Hop. He also invented & perfected The... more
DJ Steve Dee, from Harlem, grew up at the time when Hip Hop culture was developing in the parks in and around his neighborhood. He is the 1990 New Music Seminar DJ battle champion. He is famous for creating one of the two major techniques used in turntablism and battle DJing, he named it "The Funk... more
John Foley grew up in Elkhart, Indiana and began working in the Selmer factory before graduating high school. He stayed on with the company, working in the Bach department with a focus on trumpet assembly. Over the years John has taken on the role of teaching the craft to new employees, a part of... more
Jerry Myers is a bell maker for the Conn-Selmer Company in Elkhart, Indiana. Like so many of his co-workers within the factory, Jerry was trained on the job by those who came before him and over time Jerry found himself training some of the newer employees in much the same way. Jerry began... more
Mike Neely is a supervisor on the plant floor for the Conn-Selmer factory in Elkhart, Indiana, the very factory he began working in nearly 40 years before. He began working in the music industry with Selmer in the 1970s and remained with the company in the early 2000s when it merged with its... more
Richard Sigman was trained on instrument repairs on the plant floor of the Conn-Selmer factory in Elkhart nearly 40 years ago. He began working in the music industry with the Vincent Bach Company in the 1970s and remained with the company when it was sold to Selmer and again in the early 2000s... more
Willie Smith was trained on instrument repairs on the plant floor of the Conn-Selmer factory in Elkhart over 30 years ago. He began working in the music industry with the Vincent Bach Company in the 1970s and remained with the company when it was sold to Selmer and again in the early 2000s when it... more