Billy May

Billy May was a fun loving trumpeter who arranged some of the best-loved music of the Big Band Era! His humor and musical talents provided hit recordings for Glenn Miller, Charlie Barnet and Frank Sinatra, to name but three. His enormous output included radio, TV and movie work as well as thousands of studio recordings over his 6 decades as a musical artist. When NAMM first requested that Mr. May record some of his stories for the Oral History program he shied away from the request. It wasn’t until Sammy Nestico made the request on behalf of NAMM that Mr. May and Mr. Nestico were interviewed together. It was a historic event, which we proudly add to our collection. 

Image for 1994 interview courtesy of the Downbeat archives and Capitol Records