OH Taxonomy
Larry Westland set out to give a few music students a chance to play. He worked long and hard to gain support to create the Music for Youth School Programs in the UK, which was established in 1971. During enrollment in the Fall 2005 program, the two millionth student got the chance to make music....
John Hornby Skewes is the founder and president of John Hornby Skewes Company Ltd, a noted music wholesaler located in England, which was established in the early 1960s. John is also one of the pioneers of the Music Industry Association in the UK and the British Music Fair. He is an industry...
Patrick Kelly was the youngest of eight children raised in Western Scotland. His sisters played piano and he had an interest in playing the guitar. His passion led him to pursue a dream of being a rock star. While playing with his bands, he rented PA systems on the side, which led to friends asking...
Bo Diddley was the pioneering rhythm and blues performer who taught the industry one main point in the early days of the electric guitar era. With his square cigar box guitar, patented by Gretsch, Bo demonstrated that, if it’s electronic, it could be any shape and size. Soon after he played the...
Ron Carter’s name is listed in every jazz encyclopedia as a major influence on the bass. He recorded and performed with many of the greatest players in modern jazz and spoke with great detail about the instruments he uses and the style he has developed. At the end of the interview he listed what...
Byron Autrey loved to tell you everything you needed to know about how a trumpet works, and I mean everything! Byron studied the craft of trumpet design for decades, having been a player all of his life. The mathematical approach he took in understanding the flow of air and the vibration of the...
Marvin Lamb was looking for a job in 1958 and found an opening at the Gibson
Guitar Company in Kalamazoo. “This was right at the time of the boom in the
industry and it was a great time to get started.” A year later he met
James Deurloo and along with J. P. Moats, they stayed with Gibson until...
Wilbur Fuller took to woodwork at a young age. When he was 16, from the instructions in a magazine, he made a desk which still stands in the corner of his small farmhouse in western Michigan. In 1954, his cousin Walter, who engineered the Gibson amplifier in nearby Kalamazoo, told Wilbur of an...
James Deurloo walked through the old Gibson workshop, which is now the home of his company, the Heritage Guitar Company. Pointing proudly to a workstation in the middle of the old building, “that was my first workbench. I learned every skill on the line and had wonderful teachers. The old men on...
Bill Mays can balance composing, arranging and piano performance with the best of them. As a young musician in San Diego, he cut his teeth on jazz and went on to become a pioneer in the use of synthesizers in the Hollywood studios as early as 1969. With a love of vocal arranging, Bill has worked...