NAMM awarded musicians during the 2019 Gathering

NAMM awarded different musical creatives during its 34^th Annual TEC Awards. From the different parts of the music industry, winners in 23 technical and eight creative excellence categories were announced.

Presented by The NAMM Foundation and held annually, the event recognizes different people who showed exemplary achievements and innovations behind the sound of recordings, live sound and performances, films, television, video games, music production, and multi-media. Comedian Demetri Martin returned as the host of the evening.

Several companies scored dual wins for Outstanding Technical Achievement: Universal Audio picked up two awards for their OX Amp Top Box under the category of Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects, while their Arrow audio interface won for Computer Audio Hardware. JBL also celebrated dual wins for their 3 Series MkII under the Studio Monitors category and in Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers for the company’s VTX A12W Line Array Loudspeaker. Additional Outstanding Technical Achievement awards were given in honor of companies who excelled in DJ Production Technology, Hardware/Software, Wireless Technology, Microphones Recording, and more.

Proving the NAMM TEC Awards is one of the best nights in music, GRAMMY award-winning guitarist, singer-songwriter Peter Frampton as the newest recipient of the Les Paul Innovation Award. Frampton remarked, “Les Paul was the Godfather of modern recording, the most innovative of guitar players, and the creator of what we do. It’s a debt we all owe him. Whatever I’ve done to win this amazing recognition started with Les – Les showed us that innovation isn’t about high tech or money – it’s about ideas and using the tools at your disposal to make music in ways it’s never been made before.” The award has been presented annually to remarkably-distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry.

Skywalker Sound’s accomplished audio engineer, producer, and director of music and scoring, Leslie Ann Jones, was inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame and earlier in the evening, presented a TEC Award for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Jones was introduced by jazz great Herbie Hancock and is now among the coveted few inductees fit for the honor, which recognizes pioneers of audio technology, as well as the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians. Rose Mann Cherney, Skunk Baxter, Hal Blaine, Jack Douglas, Nathan East, Geoff Emerick, and others have also been honored in recent years.