Full Interview
Jade Yu has always treated her employees at Tycoon Music like family. She has worked as Managing Director with the company her husband started since the beginning, and is often called the mother of the company. Her kindness and caring nature is the reason why many employees stay with Tycoon for...
Emily Achieng Akuno became the first music professor from Kenya to be elected president of the International Music Council (IMC). This took place in 2018. The position allowed her the opportunity to bring attention to the challenges African nations face regarding music programs. Emily earned her...
Jamie Oldaker sat down in his living room in Tulsa, Oklahoma for his riveting and inspiring NAMM Oral History interview in December 2018. He opened up about his background in music and how his drive and passion led to a series of gigs, including the Silver Bullet Band and Eric Clapton. He recorded...
Mike Bennett began playing trumpet at the age of eight and played jazz trumpet and piano throughout high school. He studied music at the University of Tulsa and in 1980, landed a part time job at Saied Music. That first job was in the sheet music department and less than a year later, in January...
Rick Peale is the Sales Manager for Saied Music in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He began working for the company in 1991 and managed a store outside of Tulsa before moving to the main branch and running the combo department. His rich background in music served as the perfect foundation for his position in the...
Kim Koch has fond memories of driving to the family’s music store with her father, Bob Saied, and learning from him about the business side of the company. That inspiration stayed with her as she went to college and studied classical singing. When the time was right, she moved back to Tulsa and...
Mat Donaldson set out to create an encouraging and exciting lesson program when he opened his own shop, Drum World, in 1990. He opened the store, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the idea that selling drums would be a small part of what he offered his customers. With that, he recalled taking music...
Ron Kuykendall is the Sales Manager for the Band & Orchestra Department at Saied Music in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a college student, Ron was studying to become a band director and working at South Western Music in Oklahoma. The owners of the store, both former band directors, realized Ron had...
Al Bell was in the Stax recording studio in Memphis at the very moment Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed just a few blocks away. Ironically, the recording Al was producing at that time was a song he wrote encouraging Dr. King, whom he had known for years, to be cautious carrying...
Deke Dickerson began his musical career when he started playing the saxophone, but quickly realized he was much more adept at playing the guitar. As a part of the affectionately named “68 Club” Deke reflects on how his formative year coincided with the revival of Rockabilly, which provided him with...