OH Taxonomy
Honoring Gerhard Meinl 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 Gerhard helped us gather over the years.
Jamal Batiste grew up in a very musical family and when he saw his brother’s drum kit at 3 years old, he fell in love. Raised in New Orleans he was surrounded by what he calls the gumbo of music, playing all styles and in many different settings. Throughout his career he has played alongside groups...
Tosin Abasi is the founder and lead guitarist of the group Animals as Leaders and has a style of playing that is often unmatched. Tosin grew up in Washington, D.C and has memories of trying guitars out at Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center. He took the leap to create music professionally and...
Brenda Russell had a series of hit R&B recordings in the 1970s, 80s and 90s including “Piano In The Dark” and “So Good, So Right.” The success of her recording career as a singer led to her songwriting career, which included penning the musical score for the Broadway version of The Color Purple...
Bill Reeves saw a production of Peter Pan as a kid and was fascinated with how the sets changed and how the actors could fly. While majoring in technical theater in college Bill had a summer job at a local casino resort and started working on the traveling shows. This led to working on his first...
Bobby Fernandez grew up surrounded by music and developed an interest in film music at a young age. He always felt drawn to the film industry and more specifically the recording side of the business. In order to make his dreams a reality, Bobby applied for a mailroom job at Warner Brothers with the...
Ernie Watts is the answer to the question - who was playing the “mystery horn” on Frank Zappa’s The Grand Wazoo album? A veteran studio musician and bandleader, Ernie has had thousands of career highlights such as playing in the Tonight Show band and recording with Marvin Gaye, Kenny Burrell,...
Lance “KC” Jackson was always the one to fix the instruments in the band growing up. He learned early on the importance of learning a little bit of everything and to continue to educate himself on new programs and gear over the years. This approach to his career led to an impressive list of artists...
Markos Kounalakis’ passion for music developed in the 1980’s when he worked at a broadcasting company in Sweden. The radio station had such powerful antennas that the government of the Soviet Union could not jam the signal. As a result, the music Markos played was able to be heard behind the Iron...
Uwe Kruger grew up singing old German folks songs with family in Switzerland. Picking up the guitar at eight years old, he later played with his brother, Jens, on street corners. His love of country and bluegrass music developed while listening to military radio stations as a kid. Uwe has always...