OH Taxonomy
Karla Redding-Andrew’s father, Otis Redding, committed himself early on in his short career to philanthropy. The soul legend started a camp inviting 600 school students to learn about music and the arts back in 1966. Otis also awarded scholarships to young students and after his untimely death in...
Peggy Powell is near and dear to the NAMM family having participated in many events, especially those with her husband, Specs Powell. Specs was a studio drummer who helped Marty Cohen launch the Latin Percussion company based on his needs for percussive related hardware. Peggy played a vital role...
Gordon Kennedy is the songwriter behind such hits as Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” and Bonnie Raitt’s “Gypsy in Me.” As many may also know, Gordon is a sought after musician who has recorded and performed with Garth Brooks, Ricky Skaggs and Peter Frampton (to name but a few). His parents sang...
Dallas Smith began playing the clarinet at the age of eleven. By the time he was in high school he was in an all-star group and later focused on classical music throughout college. His love for jazz and new age music emerged over the years and Dallas found himself naturally adding classical...
Jason Lollar loves playing the guitar and even at an early age he had an eye for creating his own sounds. As he developed his skills and gigged with his friends, he realized some of the classic guitar pickups were no longer being made. He set out develop what is now a world renown line of products...
Stephanie Lollar has passionately but quietly been in the background of the pickup company she and her husband Jason formed back in 1987. Since the beginning of the company, Stephanie supported the business in every way, including running the books, hiring employees and building the brand name. She...
Bill Schnee has always enjoyed utilizing the latest technology to the fullest when it comes to recording music. As an award-winning engineer, Bill and his crew designed cutting edge equipment (alongside Doug Sax) for Schnee Studio to help optimize capturing a recorded performance - which included a...
Ron Whittaker was just eleven years old when his father started a music retail store in Long Beach, California. Whittaker Music opened in 1946, just after World War II and Ron still remembers the struggles his father had in gaining instruments as manufacturers were still short on raw materials that...
Simon Jones has a rich background with the guitar, which has come full circle with his role with the Yamaha Guitar Group. As a teenager he played, and even built his own guitar to play with his friends. He continued to play in college and took an interesting path within the pro audio and recording...
Marco Moir, who studied at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, began playing guitar for area bands. Over the years he developed the skills as a guitar technician and learned the craft of recording engineer. His long list of performers he has worked with over the years include Lynyrd Skynyrd,...