Sonny Maupin – Biography
I was born in Mississippi but grew up in Kentucky on a dairy farm outside Paris Kentucky until the 7th grade, when we moved to a smaller farm outside Lancaster Kentucky.
In the 11th grade, I took a more serious interest in music when a few opportunities presented themselves. I had the opportunity to play keyboards in a local rock band “Fog”. All the other band members were a bit older (30 – 40 years old). This was a great opportunity for me as we got to perform at events ranging from county fairs, high school dances, country club parties, and misc. private events.
At the same time, my participation as a percussionist in the high school band program led me to auditioning and participating in the Kentucky Allstate Band program, the University of Kentucky Summer Wind Ensemble, and the Morehead State University High School Band Clinic where I was selected and performed in the number 1 concert band. I was ultimately offered a full scholarship to Morehead.
I attended Morehead State University from 1976 through 1978. This was one of the most incredible learning experiences of my life. My first year, I was able to study with Dr. Robert Schietroma, one of the best percussion instructors in the country. He was unexpectedly hired away by North Texas State University to be the head of their percussion program. The next year I studied with Frank Otis. The percussion department at Morehead was one of the best in the world. There were approximately 20 extremely talented percussion majors attending Morehead at the time. We learned and performed compositions ranging from classical percussion ensemble works, original groundbreaking multi-media compositions by Dr. Schietroma, to arrangements of works by contemporary artist such as Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Jean Luc Ponty, an others. I was fortunate in learning from Dr. Schietroma the art of arranging this type of music for percussion ensemble, including a full rhythm section, and ultimately transcribed and arranged many of these works which we performed.
The Morehead marching band was also outstanding. It was a 250 piece professional drum & bugle core level organization with a 29-piece drum section. We did progressive arrangements in odd time signatures by such writers as Don Ellis. It was an incredible experience.
One of the band directors at Morehead was offered a prestigious position at UNLV in Las Vegas that same year. He offered me, along with a few other students, a full scholarship to UNLV, which included all credits transferred.
I took the opportunity and moved to Las Vegas in the fall of 1978.
Frank Galiardi was the percussion instructor and the head of the jazz program at UNLV. The jazz program was exceptional, with the UNLV #1 Jazz ensemble having a history of winning numerous national competitions, and being able to tour internationally to Japan, Poland, South America, and other countries. I was honored to be chosen to play in the #1 ensemble, and ultimately get to travel and tour Poland with the band in 1979.
In addition to the ensemble being an incredible learning experience, Frank had an internship program in place, where many of us got to fill in and play in various house orchestras in many of the main show rooms in Las Vegas. I had the opportunity to play percussion in the orchestras for many famous older acts such as
Ann Margret, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Jones, The Mills Brothers, Bob Newhart, along with others. I was hired for the relief band at the Tropicana Hotel & Casino “Follies Bergere” production show, random shows at the Riviera and Sahara Main showroom orchestras, and a touring production of “Dream Street” at the Dunes Hotel & Casino showroom.
This was one of the best times in my life, but these production shows, and other “star-act” type shows with house orchestras faded away over the years.
Fortunately I also played keyboards and ended up playing with acts such as Lola Falana, The Imperials, The Checkmates, Robert Guillaume, Santa Fe, Station Break, Denise Clemente, and Blues Hall of Famer Albert Collins. I also had the honor of playing with a great originals band “Nelson Kole & Friends”. Nelson was an incredible keyboard player and writer / arranger. We had multiple tunes on a local radio station KUNV, with one specific song being their theme song for a long time.
All of this was an incredible experience in my life, but as Las Vegas became more “corporate”, most all of this type of entertainment featuring live music faded away.
Fortunately, a “blessing in disguise” occurred somewhere in the late 1990’s. I was playing in an originals band called Station Break. We had a song that got on Billboards top 4 up-and-coming singles chart for a brief period of time. The man who was producing us suddenly vanished. I was never sure what happened, but he was critical in that song making the Billboard charts. That immediately went away along with him.
Another individual who was friends with the band leader Tex Richardson started hanging around and coming to our rehearsals. After a few months of this, he announced to us that he and some partners were to be opening a new club in Los Angeles, and that they wanted to contract us for the house band for 6 months.
I had been interested in audio and all the related equipment for a couple of years, but new basically nothing about it. What I did know, was a guy who had a decent PA system that he was selling. Specifically, if he didn’t sell it here in Las Vegas by the end of that week, he was moving back to Mississippi and taking it with him.
At the end of the rehearsals where we were told about this club & gig in LA, I went to this guy and asked him if they had a sound system in their new club. His response was “not yet”, and told me that they were remodeling the room. I made a proposal that I could provide a sound system, and lease it to them. His response was “lets go talk”. We made a deal. The next day, I spent $30,000 and bought the PA system from this guy before he left town, then immediately ordered another $15,000 in other necessary equipment.
The club never materialized. The lease deal never happened. I had just spent $45,000 and evidently, I was now in the audio business!
I started my company; New World Audio.
Thankfully, I was still performing as a musician at the time, and continued doing so for the next 4 years. During this time, I rented the equipment wherever I could, and slowly made my money back, plus, slowly learned what I was doing.
About the same time as the music scene in Las Vegas pretty much died, I started getting more serious shows and events for my audio business. I immediately used the money and upgraded to high end, industry standard equipment such as Meyer Sound speaker systems; Yamaha and Soundcraft mixing consoles; Clair Brothers monitors, etc.
I also added backline equipment to my inventory. (band equipment such as drum kits, keyboards, guitar amps, bass amps, percussion equipment, etc.)
In another 4 years, I had accounts at the Riviera Hotel & Casino, where not only did I provide the equipment for numerous concerts and shows, but also sold and installed systems in three different rooms, including a massive convention room where many major concerts such as Tony Orlando, Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, Bobby Vinton, Colors of Christmas, Air Supply, David Spade, Sha Na Na, Bill Maher, Johnny Rivers, and many others.
I had an account at the Stardust Hotel and Casino, where I provided equipment for numerous concerts such as Chicago, BB King, Three Dog Night, Kevin Spacey, and many more. I also sold them a new Meyer speaker system for their showroom, and provided backline equipment on a regular basis for their lounge.
I had a great account at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino where I provided equipment for numerous shows and events, and ultimately sold them a Meyer Sound speaker system for their main showroom.
I either sold, or had systems on a lease at several other casinos, such as The Tropicana, Arizona Charlies, Players Island Casino in Mesquite Nevada, Greek Isles Hotel & Casino, as well as local clubs and bars such as Club Paradise, Park Avenue Nightclub, Sit N’ Bull Lounge, The Image Lounge, The summit Nightclub, The Cave, Club Exotica, Moose McGillicuddys, Seven nightclub & restaurant, and Stoneys Rockin Country.
Again, this was a blessing-in-disguise, as if I were still depending on making a living as a musician, I would have had a difficult time at best.
My company, New World Audio has provided me a great career for over 30 years at this point. I’ve remained a small company by choice, but we do a majority of extremely hi-end events and world class performers. We’ve provided equipment and services for acts such as Celine Dion, Prince, Chick Corea, Snoop Dog, Charlie Daniels, Cheryl Crow, Katy Perry, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Lynard Skynard, Willie Nelson, Cool & The Gang, 50 Cent, and many, many more.
