OH Taxonomy
Wolf Stephenson met Tommy Couch (the founder of Malaco Records) while the two studied pharmacy in college. They began booking musical acts for their college parties and soon expanded to events and night clubs in and around Oxford, Mississippi. In 1963, Wolf met Rick Hall (the founder of Fame...
David Miller is the band director who had the vision of a musical outlet for adult musicians in mostly non-music careers when he helped establish the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band. He was active in school band programs as a kid and played French horn in college, after which he became a band...
Doug Williams heard his father singing as far back as he can remember. As a member of the Big Five gospel group, his father encouraged his children to sing in church. Doug sang with his two older brothers as part of the Williams Brothers, a group that performed and recorded for several decades. In...
Bobby Rush won his first GRAMMY at the age of 83 in 2017, some sixty years after his first professional gig as a bluesman. Beginning in the 1950s, Bobby performed live and recorded in Chicago with such artists as Bo Diddley, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter and Muddy Waters. Moving to...
David Schommer was playing in the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band when he approached the conductor, David Miller, and inquired about forming a swing band. David had the vision of a swing community band that would play the roots music of the area, jazz, and the blues, in the hope of keeping the...
Dr. Michael Peters is the former Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt and an avid musician. Early on he formed several skiffle bands and later founded the Musikmesse Frankfurt Allstars. From 1993 to 2010 Dr. Peters was in charge of the Frankfurt fairs. He is responsible for creating at least 30...
Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel Schreiber and his sons, Ernst and Hugo, made the company W. Schreiber a great success. After the company was...
Leo Adelman spent much of his life playing the jazz trumpet. In retirement, he spends a great deal of time playing and promoting jazz throughout San Diego County. When the NAMM Oral History Program was established in 2000, Leo was among the first to help arrange interviews with many of his friends...
Matt Keiser was strongly encouraged to play music as a child, after all his father is composer and music publisher, Lauren Keiser! Matt played bass in high school and began taking a strong interest in his father’s career as a leader in the music publishing industry. In 2012, Lauren purchased...
Alex Ordonez was eight years old when he began playing the piano. He was the first in his family to play music and was encouraged by his parents. Although he later focused his time on sports, Alex somehow knew his love of music would be part of his future. It was after serving in the United States...