Organs
Jack K. Lewis served as President and COO for the Conn Organ Company after years of serving as it's Manager of Marketing Administration, General Sales Manager, Director of Marketing and Senior Corporate Executive. Jack was involved with Conn Organ during the great home market boom of the 1960s and...
Wally Evans grew up in Wales with music all around him. He played piano and sang in church. He later learned to play the guitar and worked in several bands at night and worked in a power plant by day. For two years he studied electronic musical instrument technology in London before being hired by...
Karen Cuneo-Ramirez played piano since she was a girl and as she grew up, she began to teach piano. She was hired by Sherman Clay in Stockton, California, to teach piano after buying an organ from the store just a week before. Karen worked closely with the Conn Organ Company, taking their sales...
Ken Edgington has many friends in the music industry, several of whom suggested he be included in the NAMM Oral History program, but when approached Ken was rather humble about his role in the music business, “are you sure you have the right guy?” Ken worked for the Baldwin Piano Company in Ohio...
Jon Hammond has successfully created a career based on his musical talents and his passion for the music industry! As a musician Jon has performed with many legendary players and as a clinician and product artist he has introduced many innovative products to music stores and their customers over...
Robert Tall is among the most successful and popular organ salesmen in the music industry –historically and presently. He earned his masters and doctorate in music performance and began working in the music industry as salesman for a Southern California retailer in the late 1960s. Over his career,...
Bruce Bannister is the current president of Samuel Music in Effingham, Illinois. The store was formed in the 1940s by Lowell Samuel, the band director turned music industry pioneer. Bruce was interviewed in the store and recalled working closely with Lowell as well as Dean Samuel, Lowell’s son and...
David Tarpley remembered crawling around in the ceiling of his current church as a child, hauling the wires for the Allen Organ his father and uncle were installing. As a member of the Tarpley family, you worked in the family business, which for David meant sweeping the music store, moving pianos...
Bill Tarpley remembered the stories his father used to tell him about the early days of the family music retail store in west Texas. Times were hard during the era of the dust bowls and depression, but he credits his father’s skills as both a businessman and salesman in the success of the store....
Buzz Tarpley grew up in the music business. His grandmother was selling pianos as early as 1917 in West Texas. The Tarpley family officially opened a music store in 1927 in Pampa, Texas. Buzz recalled growing up in the late 1930s and 40s and the many radio sets his father would sell. He also...