Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/180042
came to the store for instrument repairs and to buy equipment. "Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band, members of the Cars, Boston, and other well-known musicians used to stop by," she recalls. After three-plus years at Wurlitzer, Tryon made another career shift. Through her repair work, she met many representatives from the major equipment manufacturers and did some purchasing for Wurlitzer. In 1985, she was hired to work in Berklee's Purchasing Department. "It was a nice segue," she says. Today, Tryon is the college's senior director of institutional advancement. "Few people today know that I started my working career in guitar repair." By 1990, LaSalle Music, Wurlitzer's parent company failed, but Wurlitzer was holding its own. That same year, the lease for the Newbury Street building expired, and the new owner didn't want a music store for a tenant. "We didn't leave willingly," Joly recalls, "that was a fantastic location. In addition to opening a new Wurlitzer store on Commonwealth Avenue opposite Boston University, the company converted a small warehouse space it was renting at 180 Massachusetts Avenue to a retail space. "We really wanted to maintain a presence in the Berklee neighborhood," Joly says. He stayed with the company until 1996, when Wurlitzer was operating seven stores in the New England area. In 1996, Joly left to work for Thoroughbred Music in Tampa, Florida. (Wurlitzer went out of business two years later.) Joly later worked for Tascam before accepting a vice president position at Guitar Center in Southern California in 2002. In September 2013, Joly was named president of Musician's Friend, a division of Guitar Center. Looking back, he says, "I was fortunate to work with a lot of knowledgeable people at Wurlitzer. We had a great staff and a lot of them have gone on to develop great careers in the industry." At the Center of It All Hirsh Gardner '73 is another Berklee alumnus who found his niche in the music retail business. In 1969, Gardner (a drummer) arrived in Boston from Toronto, Canada, to study composition. He left Berklee in 1973 and began playing throughout the country with a group of musicians that later took the name New England. In 1978, the group's demos came to the attention of Bill Aucoin, the manager for Kiss. "He was a powerful fgure in the rock world then, and signed us to his management company," Gardner says. "We later signed a recording contract with Infnity Records and started touring with Kiss, Journey, Kansas, Cheap Trick, Rush, and others." The group had a regional hit with "Don't Ever Want to Lose Ya" in 1979, but after four years together and three albums, the band broke up. Gardner established himself as a record producer and won a Boston music award, among other accolades. "Then my producing took a downturn in the early 1990s," Gardner says. Fred Bramante, the founder of the Daddy's Junky Music store chain, offered him a job in music retail. Gardner accepted Bramante's offer and began a new career track. He worked at the company's larger stores in New Hampshire, and helped Daddy's launch a pro-audio line. Gardner was even named salesman of the year. He also started a highly successful used instrument mail order business for Daddy's. "I remember selling some gear to Joe Perry [of Aerosmith] and [guitarist] Steve Vai." In 2000, Bramante asked Gardner to relocate and manage the Boston store at 161 Massachusetts Avenue. By that time, it was the biggest music store in Berklee's neighborhood. In addition to thousands of Berklee students buying their gear there, many national touring musicians passing through town stopped in. "I remember selling a keyboard to Stevie Wonder," Gardner says. "Joe Walsh of the Eagles and Eddie Van Halen have also stopped by." After experiencing fnancial problems, the company folded in 2011. Gardner contacted his former competitors at Guitar Center and joined their staff. In 2012, Guitar Center opened its new store at the site that Daddy's had occupied for many years with Gardner as the store manager. "I really tuned into what the students at Berklee and Boston and New England conservatories needed," Gardner says. "I wanted the kids to know they could come here and we'd beat the prices they could fnd by shopping online, and they [would] walk out of the store with the gear." The line of brass and woodwind merchandise, an equipment rental division that includes high-end pro audio gear, and other specialty touches, distinguish the Boston store from others in the Guitar Center chain. Gardner has also promoted bonds among the store, the educational community, and local musicians. "We are hosting clinics by Berklee faculty members and have opened our stage up for afternoon performances," he says. "I wanted to see everyone working together." In addition to selling the tools of the musical trade, music retailers in the neighborhood are a great source for a part-time job or a career. "Most of the people working at this store are either Berklee alumni or students," Gardner says. "A young student called me, saying she was coming to Berklee and that she'd worked at a Guitar Center store in her hometown for two years. That's all I needed to hear. Without meeting her, I told her there would a job waiting for her when she got to Boston." Gene Joly '73 Adan Renn Olenn 1920s as an instrument repair shop. They later began selling horns and Martin guitars. The late Tim Jachrimo joined the company in the 1950s. He had an intellectual curiosity about technology and new instruments." Joly says that when the frst Fender sales rep showed up with a Fender Precision bass in the 50s, Pop Wurlitzer threw him out of the store. Jachrimo chased the rep down the street and told him to come back after Pop left at 5:00 P.M. "Tim was responsible for bringing the Fender and Ampeg lines to the store," Joly says. "So when the big boom in electric instruments hit in the sixties, Wurlitzer was well positioned." In 1970, Jachrimo, who was then the store manager, he moved it from cramped quarters on Bedford Street to a larger space at 360 Newbury Street near Berklee. The new facility allowed more inventory and individual instrument departments. Bob Cavanaugh (now 90 years old) expertly managed the guitar department in one of the most guitar-centric areas of the country. He has countless anecdotes about waiting on George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, Mick Goodrick, and others during his 20-year tenure. Cavanaugh also gets kudos for tipping off Bill Leavitt to Berklee's search for a guitar chair in the college's then-fedgling guitar department. Around 1982, the Wurlitzer family sold the store to a new owner. There were signs of fnancial problems. Joly was named president of the store in 1983 and helped the company weather the storm. Within a few years, Joly and company had righted the ship, and the store was doing well. During the mid-1980s, Beverly Tryon '82, spent three years working at Wurlitzer. "I came to Berklee to study guitar," Tryon says, "but I fgured out that I didn't want a career as a performer. Not long after Berklee, I was inspired by the great guitar builders Jimmy D'Aquisto and Linda Manzer and enrolled in a guitar-building course in Vermont." During the six-week course, Tryon built a fne acoustic guitar, and subsequently repaired guitars in Connecticut before taking a job at E.U. Wurlitzer in Boston. "At Wurlitzer, I did refnishing work as well as fret fling and installing pickups," she says. "There had been one other woman there doing this work before me, but there were not too many in the feld back then." Tryon worked alongside the late Eddie Murray—a much-sought-after repairman—and Peter Stokes. Stokes later established Broken Neck Guitar Repair at 1108 Boylston Street and still operates in the location. Tryon recalls, "Wurlitzer was in its heyday during the 1970s and early '80s. It was the top music store in Boston then and was a fun place to work." Many local rockers who were breaking out nationally Beverly Tryon '82 and Peter Stokes with a guitar built by Tryon Hirsh Gardner '73 Fall2013 33