Claude's first professional gig was in 1933 with the Joe Rivet Band. Claude played saxophone, clarinet, trumpet & violin.

In 1934, Claude joined the Orin Tucker Band and later joined Ben Young's band where he met Tex Beneke. In 1936 Claude and Tex Beneke joined the Glenn Miller Band.

In 1938, while playing with Glenn Miller, Claude met Harry James who was then playing with Benny Goodman. It was at this time that Harry James started his original band and asked Claude to join playing the jazz tenor book.

Claude played trumpet for the Harry James Band in 1940 and lead alto in 1942-1943.

In 1943 Claude joined the Army where he played in various Army bands. After the war he rejoined Harry James for one last tour.

In 1947 Claude enrolled at North Texas State University to pursue his music education. It was here that he met Dr. M.E. (Gene) Hall who started the famous One O'clock Lab Band. In 1949 Dr. Hall asked Claude to be the band's first Conductor.

After working as a representative of the C. Bruno & Sons company Claude and his wife opened C&D Music Company in the San Fernando Valley which is a suburb of Los Angeles. In 1955 Claude started and directed the famous San Fernando Valley Youth Bands which developed many great musicians over three decades. During this time Claude started working on the concept of the original Claude Lakey Mouthpiece.

Claude continued directing the Youth Bands and running the music store. He purchased many blanks from various mouthpiece manufacturers and tinkered with different facings and chamber sizes. He put his name on several models that met his standards. He was frustrated at the lack of quality mouthpiece blanks that were available and started researching mold makers with the thought of making his own molds. Finding a quality mold maker in the 60's was a very hard process but after many interviews Claude found the shop that could produce the quality that met his high standards. We still use the same shop today!

Claude worked hard to hone the mouthpiece manufacturing process and the handcrafted work that was needed to make a quality product. Claude knew he had a very good product. He made a decision to put all of his efforts into the mouthpiece business and sold the music store to one of his prot'g'es, Nick Bogden. Nick spent ten years in Claude's youth bands in the 50's and 60's and Claude set up his first mouthpiece shop in an area of the music store. Through word of mouth the mouthpiece's popularity began to grow. Nick turned the youth band rehearsal area into a rehearsal space and many big bands used the facility to prepare for shows or to work on new material. Great sax players were coming through the store every day and Claude would let them try alto, tenor, soprano and clarinet mouthpieces with astounding success.

During this decade the mouthpiece business grew to a point where Claude had to move to a larger facility. He continued to have great sax players stop by his shop to purchase his mouthpieces and opened up a few distributors to sell the mouthpieces to music stores. Claude moved his mouthpiece business to his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas. Nick Bogden closed down C&D Music Co. in 1980 and teamed up with 'The Captain & Tennille' to build and manage Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park, California. Many great projects were recorded at Rumbo which include Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Bob Segar, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, The Beach Boys and Guns & Roses.

In 1990 at the age of 80 Claude decided that he wanted to retire and pass the mouthpiece business on to someone who could continue his legacy so he called Nick Bogden to see if he would be interested. Nick had a great desire to keep Claude Lakey's name and the great product going so he flew to Texas to learn the handcrafted process that was involved in making the mouthpieces. During the process of selling the business Claude found out he had cancer. Within a month he unfortunately passed away. Nick completed the purchase of the business from the estate and moved everything to Seattle, WA. where it continues to thrive today. The importance of making a great handcrafted mouthpiece for student and professional woodwind players alike was not lost on Nick Bogden. He has remained focused on producing high quality handcrafted saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces for the purpose of keeping the Lakey legacy alive. Nick uses the same tools, techniques, specs. and skills to handcraft these respected mouthpieces..

Over the years Nick has grown Claude Lakey Mouthpieces into one the most recognized names in the music business. We now export our products to over twenty countries throughout the world and have four distributors in the United States. We constantly have to remind people that we still handcraft the mouthpieces using the same techniques that Claude perfected back in the 1950's. This is very different than most of our competitors who mass produce inferior quality mouthpieces.