Marshall Hawkins Reminisces

Marshall Hawkins founded the Idyllwild Arts Jazz Program with the intention of giving young musicians the same kind of individual mentoring that he received while growing up in Washington, D.C., and later from jazz immortals like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock when he played the standup bass with them. Marshall’s passion for music and for helping young musicians excel has moved former students like the drummer Andy Fraga, Jr., Class of 1997, to call him not only a great teacher, but “an artist on a deeper spiritual level.” Fraga points out that to masters like Davis and Hancock, jazz has always been “a huge spiritual thing, and Marshall is steeped in that history and he brings it to every note he plays.”

The NAMM Oral History Program is a collection of one-on-one interviews with people involved in the music products industry, including not only artists but also music instrument retailers, instrument and product creators, suppliers, and sales representatives, music educators and advocates, publishers, live sound and recording pioneers, innovators, and founders. The mission of the program is to preserve the history of the music products industry, including industry innovations, the evolution of musical instruments, and music retail, as well as to improve music education worldwide. The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) established the Oral History Program in 2000.