Oral History - all
Dave Weckl was proudly inducted into the Modern Drummer Magazine's Hall of Fame in 2000. The award was extra meaningful to Dave given the list of previous winner who inspired his playing when he was a kid. Dave grew up in Missouri and studied Jazz in Connecticut before moving to New York for his... more
Wolfgang Haffner grew up in Germany and began playing drums at a young age. He gravitated towards jazz and one of his first recordings was with Al Cohn in 1987. He went on to record with the likes of Dominic Miller, Metro, Eddie Daniels, and Peter Bolte. Wolfgang was interviewed for the NAMM Oral... more
Tony Verderosa was inspired by Bill Bruford's use of electronic percussion units to write new music in real-time. After graduating from the Crane School of Music, Tony began working with a number of innovative drum products. He debuted the DTS70 Triggering Module for Yamaha and sought new ways to... more
Gerry Brown went to school with Stanley Clarke, who always encouraged Gerry to follow his passion for music. Years later the two old friends recorded an album together called School Days! Gerry went on to perform and record with Stevie Wonder for nearly 20 years and other artists such as Chick... more
Keith Carlock looks forward to providing in-store clinics for music retailers because it gives him the opportunity to talk to the young musician just as they are getting started. Having been inspired by such clinics when he was a kid, Keith takes pride in conveying his passion for playing and his... more
Birth Date: January 9, 1941
Deceased Date: September 21, 2020
Roy Head was born a sharecropper's son in the tiny town of Three Rivers, Texas. Growing up listening to every style of music available on his small radio, Roy became heavily influenced by early Rhythm & Blues musicians. While still in high school Roy and five buddies formed the band The Traits... more
Omer Deutsch’s career as a luthier was fueled by his passion for heavy metal rock. In college, he studied industrial design and later had a job outside of music. He dreamed of a day when he could design and create his own musical instruments for others to make music from. With his wife’s strong... more
Robert Scovill is a 35-year veteran of professional concert sound and recording and has mixed over 3,500 events in his career. His engineering and production talents have been enlisted by a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of marquee music acts including Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Matchbox Twenty,... more
Honoring Bernie Capicchiano 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 Bernie helped us gather. Thank you Bernie!
Butch Miles was born in Ironton, Ohio on the 4th of July during a family reunion. Raised by his single mother, Butch decided to play drums when he was asked to join the school band. By the time he was in high school, Butch was playing in local bands and studying jazz with Frank Thompson at the... more
Mike van der Logt is the manager of possibilities with 4M4YOU, with the four M’s standing for Management, Marketing, Media, and Music. Mike worked in a small music store in his hometown as a teenager, which shaped his passion for musical and audio products. He later served on the Behringer team,... more
Larry Batiste has served as the musical director for the TEC Awards for over 20 years. His love for music all started when his uncle’s piano arrived in his home while Larry was a child. He later picked up the trombone and played throughout high school and college. He fine-tuned his arranging skills... more
Archie Bell, a native of Houston, Texas, grew up listening to his mother sing in the Baptist church. Out of her seven sons she singled out Archie and suggested that he should try to be a singer. After seeing Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke in concert together, Archie decided that would be his path as... more
Steve Harkey and his father, Don, formed Accent Music in Wilmington, Delaware in 1988. He was joined in the store by his wife, Joyce, after she raised their five children. The couple met in college, where Joyce studied music therapy and Steve focused on music merchandising. He later worked for Art’... more
Joyce Harkey took regular piano lessons as a child and remembers the day when she was a teenager and her love for music just clicked. She focused on what she could do to use music to help others and with her mom’s background in nursing, Joyce studied music therapy. After getting married, she... more
Birth Date: February 12, 1923
Deceased Date: July 28, 2021
Luis Miranda often visited the Palladium Theater as a teenager to dance. During one visit, Luis was asked by a member of the band if he played the congas since their conga player was out sick. This was the beginning of a 70 plus year career as a Latin percussionist! He worked with some of the... more
Birth Date: April 6, 1958
Deceased Date: December 7, 2018
Scott Rodgers was offered a whopping $5.00 an hour from his friend’s dad to help with the staging at a Deep Purple concert in 1973. It was the start of his career in the music industry and the beginning of a passion to provide the best staging and rigging services possible. That passion and desire... more
Birth Date: July 1, 1951
Deceased Date: February 3, 2018
Ndugu Chancler cut his teeth as a jazz drummer but later expanded his scope to include the blues, pop, soul, and funk. As a jazz drummer, he worked with an incredible line up of artists over the years including Miles Davis, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Gerald Wilson, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious... more
This video is of our annual NAMM Tribute, created in honor of our members and music industry friends who passed away in 2017 and early 2018. This Tribute was shown for the first time at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California in January 2018. All moving images within this video, indicate those who... more
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 musicians including Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Kenny Barron, Clark Terry, and Wayne Shorter,... more