‘Each One Teach One’ music conference in Garfield touts “Transformation”

Tene Croom, For New Pittsburgh Courier

RUSSELL BYNUM of Bynums Marketing & Communications speaks at the ‘Each One Teach One’ music conference in Garfield. (Photo by Tené Croom)

The heavy downpours pounding Pittsburgh for much of Saturday, July 8 didn’t keep away scores of entrepreneurs, policymakers, and musicians from attending the “Each One Teach One” Music and Radio Conference in Garfield.

They were among those eager to get valuable information from veterans in the broadcast, public relations and music industries who spoke at the daylong event at the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation Activities Center. About 50 adults attended the event.

“I know a lot of people with knowledge in music, broadcasting, technology and things like that—so I just wanted to bring them together to share their information with people,” said longtime WRCT-FM jazz DJ Kevin Amos, the organizer of the free conference.

Tanisha Jackson, founder of Tanisha Jackson Entertainment Management, spoke at the event about a glaring issue facing African American entrepreneurs.

“We tend to hold Black entrepreneurs to a different standard and that’s not helping us,” said Jackson.

Among other presenters at the conference: Russell Bynum, owner, Bynums Marketing & Communications, Inc., Minette Seate, senior producer, WQED-TV, Chuck Leavens, president, Pittsburgh Public Media, and blues/soul singer Billy Price, honored in 2016 as a Pittsburgh Rock ‘n Roll Legend.

The theme of the conference in its seventh year was transformation. Amos said the event is a learning experience. “I’m always learning when I reach out to people and talk to them about speaking. You’re never too old to learn and to be transformed,” Amos said.

This year’s conference was dedicated to Chuck Berry, Rudy Van Gelder, Joanne Quinn-Smith (The Techno Granny), Michael George, and Dr. Bruce Marion. Amos said that each honoree, in their own way, has transformed the world and music business.

“The music of Chuck Berry influences, but also his sense of fashion and stage presence, it was something completely different,” Amos told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “Mr. Berry influenced and transformed all those who came after him.”

Amos continued, “In the discussion about Chuck Berry and Rudy Van Gelder, I brought visual aids and those were the new LP by Chuck and about three or four LPs that Mr. Van Gelder engineered on various labels. The folks (at the conference) were in awe of the actual LPs he engineered on such recordings by John Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington Jr.”

Amos, the panelists and attendees reminisced on how Van Gelder built a recording studio in his home, and the similar internal pattern was followed by Motown’s Berry Gordy for his studio. “One person said George Martin (producer for the Beatles) was more than likely influenced by the way Rudy made things sound in his studio,” Amos said.

“Each and every presenter and panelist talked about how their career transformed to bring them where they are today. What I wanted to bring out is that we all make changes in our life and careers and that it never ends.”

 

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