Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun dies

[etherbored]

NEW YORK - Ahmet Ertegun, who helped define American music as the founder of Atlantic Records, a label that popularized the gritty R&B of Ray Charles, the classic soul of Aretha Franklin and the British rock of the Rolling Stones, has died, his spokesman said. He was 83.

Ertegun remained connected to the music scene until his last days — it was at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theatre in New York where Ertegun fell, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. He later slipped into a coma.

“He was in a coma and expired today with his family at his bedside,” said Dr. Howard A. Riina, Ertegun’s neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Ertegun will be buried in a private ceremony in his native Turkey, said Bob Kaus, a spokesman for Ertegun and Atlantic Records. A memorial service will be conducted in New York after the New Year’s.

Ertegun, a Turkish ambassador’s son, started collecting records for fun, but would later became one of the music industry’s most powerful figures with Atlantic, which he founded in 1947.

The label first made its name with rhythm and blues by Charles and Big Joe Turner, but later diversified, making Franklin the Queen of Soul as well as carrying the banner of British rock (with the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin) and American pop (with Sonny & Cher, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and others).

Today, the company, part of Warner Music Group, is the home to artists including Kid Rock, James Blunt, T.I., and Missy Elliott.

[ValerieB]

i am very sorry to hear this news but i guess it was inevitable since the fall. and i would guess strongly that this powerful man would not want to live the rest of his life as an invalid. what an incredibly colorful life he lived.

my condolences to family and friends.

[J.A.W.]

Very sad news. We owe him a lot as co-founder of one of the all-time great independent labels!

[Dan Gould]

Definitely a sad day for music, though as Valerie said, it seemed like it was inevitable after his fall. What's especially unfortunate is this kind of accidental death. At 83, you figure declining health would be the cause but it sounds like he was still active so its extra unfortunate that a wrong step led to his death.

[Rosco]

A life that enriched so many others. They don't make 'em like that anymore. RIP

[Chuck Nessa]

What Rosco said.

[RDK]

Very very sad. We all owe him so much.

And I have to add that when I'm 83, I hope I'm hip enough to be hanging backstage at a rock concert.

[brownie]

Right up to his death, his life was the stuff of legends.

His older brother Nesuhi should also be remembered. Nesuhi was the one responsible for the great jazz albums that were released on Atlantic. He also helped Lester Koenig at the beginnings of Contemporary Records.

Jazz fans should be forever grateful to those sons of immigrants who helped popularize the best of American music!

[ep1str0phy]

Here here, brownie.

RIP

[EKE BBB]

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Music Pioneer Ahmet Ertegun Dies at 83

by Nekesa Mumbi Moody

Associated Press, December 14, 2006

Filed at 6:33 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ahmet Ertegun, who helped define American music as the founder of Atlantic Records, a label that popularized the gritty R&B of Ray Charles, the classic soul of Aretha Franklin and the British rock of the Rolling Stones, has died, his spokesman said. He was 83.

Ertegun remained connected to the music scene until his last days -- it was at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theatre in New York where Ertegun fell, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. He later slipped into a coma.

"He was in a coma and expired today with his family at his bedside," said Dr. Howard A. Riina, Ertegun's neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Ertegun will be buried in a private ceremony in his native Turkey, said Bob Kaus, a spokesman for Ertegun and Atlantic Records. A memorial service will be conducted in New York after the New Year's.

Ertegun, a Turkish ambassador's son, started collecting records for fun, but would later became one of the music industry's most powerful figures with Atlantic, which he founded in 1947.

The label first made its name with rhythm and blues by Charles and Big Joe Turner, but later diversified, making Franklin the Queen of Soul as well as carrying the banner of British rock (with the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin) and American pop (with Sonny & Cher, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and others).

Today, the company, part of Warner Music Group, is the home to artists including Kid Rock, James Blunt, T.I., and Missy Elliott.

Ertegun's love of music began with jazz, back when he and his late brother Nesuhi (an esteemed producer of such jazz acts as Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman) used to hang around with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in the clubs of Washington, D.C.

"My father was a diplomat who was ambassador to Switzerland, France and England before he became ambassador to the United States, and we lived in all those countries and we always had music in the house, and a lot of it was a kind of popular music, and we heard a lot of jazz," Ertegun recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. "By the time we came to Washington, we were collecting records and we amassed a collection of some 25,000 blues and jazz records."

Ertegun parlayed his love of music into a career when he founded Atlantic with partner Herb Abramson and a $10,000 loan. When the label first started, it made its name with blues-edged recordings by acts such as Ruth Brown.

Despite his privileged background, which included attending prep school and socializing with Washington's elite, Ertegun was able to mix with all kinds of people -- an attribute that made him not just a marketer of black music, but a part of it, said Jerry Wexler.

"The transition between these two worlds is one of Ahmet's most distinguishing characteristics, " Wexler said.

Black music was the backbone of the label for years -- it was Atlantic, under Wexler's production genius, that helped make Franklin the top black female singer of her day.

"We had some pop music -- we had Bobby Darin... and we developed other pop artists such as Sonny and Cher and Bette Midler and so on," said Ertegun. "But we had been most effective that set a style as purveyors of African-American music. And we were the kings of that until the arrival of Motown Records, which was long after we started."

But once music tastes changed, Ertegun switched gears and helped bring on the British invasion in the '60s.

"If Atlantic had restricted itself to R&B music, I have no doubt that it would be extinct today," Wexler said.

Instead, it became even bigger.

In later years, Ertegun signed Midler, Roberta Flack and ABBA. He had a gift for being able to pick out what would be a commercial smash, said the late producer Arif Mardin, who remembered one session where he was working with the Bee Gees on an album -- but was unsure of what he had produced.

"Then Ahmet came and listened to it, and said, 'You've got hits here, you've got dance hits,'" Mardin once told the AP. "I was involved in such a way that I didn't see the forest for the trees.... He was like the steadying influence."

One strength of the company was Ertegun's close relationships with many of the artists -- relationships that continued even after they left his label. Midler still called for advice, and he visited Franklin's home when he dropped into Detroit.

His friendships extended to the younger generation, too, including Kid Rock and Lil' Kim.

Besides his love of music, Ertegun was also known for his love of art, and socializing. It was not uncommon to find him at a party with his wife, Mica, hanging out until all hours with friends.

Although he was slowed by triple-bypass surgery in 2001, he still went into his office almost daily to listen for his next hit.

Finding those hits were among the most wonderful moments in his life, he said.

"I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging... you know you have a multimillion- seller hit -- and what you're working on suddenly has magic," he said. "That's the biggest."

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[mikeweil]

I am in the town of Elaziğ ın Eastern Turkey at this moment - there was an extended obituary in state TV this morning.

R.İ.P., and thanks for the wealth of music you made available. Just as his father was an ambassador for the state, he was for the music.

[John L]

RIP

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Atlantic changed my life. It's a sad, sad, day.

MG

[Alexander]

Certainly one of the towering figures of American popular music. How different things would have been had the Ertegun brothers chosen different paths in life! We owe them a great debt...

[chris olivarez]

A major label record exec who was worth a shit.RIP.

[bolivarblues]

In jazz, if the musicians liked a suit, then chances are they were good cats; the Erteguns were among the best. The ideal of an honest big label exec with a genuine passion for the music seems an anomally in modern times, but Ahmet Ertegun personified those qualities. What a great American story, too - two Turkish immigrants whose version of the American Dream involved helping change the face of America's original art form, jazz. Before we get all up in arms about immigrants and start building fences at the border and such, we should remember that our nation was founded on the backs of hard-working immigrants like the Ertegun brothers. It's what this country is about.

As a related aside, today I watched the DVD Tom Dowd: The Language of Music. The brothers Ertegun make numerous appearances in this fascinating look at a remarkable individual, one who helped pioneer modern recording techniques. Among the many fascinating anecdotes is Dowd's recount of his involvement in the session that resulted in Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. Apparently, Dowd and company were not prepared for the length of the double quartet's experimentation, and upon realizing that the tape was running out, he had to hurriedly prepare a 2-track machine in order to keep tape rolling. The end result is actually a splice of three tapes, going from 4-track, to 2-track, and once the 2-track ran out, back to 4-track. Dowd recalls telling Coleman and Dolphy what had happened during the recording; both had a "whatever it takes" attitude, and were in agreement that they "nailed" the take and that it likely could not be easily reproduced. One thing becomes quite clear about the man, and that is he knew and respected that it was his job to make sure the tape is running whenever "that moment" occured, even if it meant that meant having to engineer a midnight Charles Mingus session after spending all day working with The Coasters. He had a true respect for the muse and its fleeting nature.

Oh, and by the way, I'm new here. Hello.

Edited December 17, 2006 by Frankie Machine

[JPF]

In jazz, if the musicians liked a suit, then chances are they were good cats; the Erteguns were among the best. The ideal of an honest big label exec with a genuine passion for the music seems an anomally in modern times, but Ahmet Ertegun personified those qualities. What a great American story, too - two Turkish immigrants whose version of the American Dream involved helping change the face of America's original art form, jazz. Before we get all up in arms about immigrants and start building fences at the border and such, we should remember that our nation was founded on the backs of hard-working immigrants like the Ertegun brothers. It's what this country is about.

As a related aside, today I watched the DVD Tom Dowd: The Language of Music. The brothers Ertegun make numerous appearances in this fascinating look at a remarkable individual, one who helped pioneer modern recording techniques. Among the many fascinating anecdotes is Dowd's recount of his involvement in the session that resulted in Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. Apparently, Dowd and company were not prepared for the length of the double quartet's experimentation, and upon realizing that the tape was running out, he had to hurriedly prepare a 2-track machine in order to keep tape rolling. The end result is actually a splice of three tapes, going from 4-track, to 2-track, and once the 2-track ran out, back to 4-track. Dowd recalls telling Coleman and Dolphy what had happened during the recording; both had a "whatever it takes" attitude, and were in agreement that they "nailed" the take and that it likely could not be easily reproduced. One thing becomes quite clear about the man, and that is he knew and respected that it was his job to make sure the tape is running whenever "that moment" occured, even if it meant that meant having to engineer a midnight Charles Mingus session after spending all day working with The Coasters. He had a true respect for the muse and its fleeting nature.

Oh, and by the way, I'm new here. Hello.

Nice post, FM, very nice. Welcome. Would that there were more posts like yours and less like...........never mind. Keep posting.

[Larry Kart]

I did a longish phone interview with Ahmet when Atlantic came out with its excellent "The Erteguns' New York Cabaret Music" box in 1988, he and Nesuhi having been the producers/instigators for most of those recordings, which had been recorded 30 or more years before the box came out. He was delight to talk to; his enthusiasm for the music was vivid and deep, and while his classiness was quite evident, there was definite foxy strain to him as well.

[B. Goren.]

The Ertegün brothers also co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League. They were instrumental in bringing in soccer legends like Pele, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer to the club.

[clifford_thornton]

Don't have much to add that hasn't already been said.

RIP and thanks for providing an outlet for so much great music!

[brownie]

Ahmet Ertegun was buried today i_n Istanbul.

From AFP:

Music pioneer Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, buried in Istanbul

Ahmet Ertegun, one of the modern music industry's most influential figures who helped propel the likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones, has been laid to rest in his hometown after a religious service attended by politicians and artists alike.

The 83-year-old Turkish-born founder of the legendary Atlantic Records label died last Thursday in New York, where he had been in a coma since October 29 after suffering a brain injury when he fell backstage at a Rolling Stones concert.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was among those who shouldered his coffin Monday, wrapped in a traditional green cloth with Islamic scripture and the Turkish flag, after a religious service at a mosque on Istanbul's Asian side.

"He made the music industry what it is today," Lyor Cohen, the US chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group, which Atlantic is part of today, said at the ceremony.

The company's vice president, Kevin Liles, paid tribute to Ertegun's pioneering role in marketing rhythm and blues and jazz, the sound of poor black urban America, to white audiences in the United States and the world.

Gul struck a political note, saying that Ertegun's demise left a "big gap" in the Turkish lobby in Washington, where the music magnate maintained close ties with the US political elite.

"No one else has done, could have done so much for (the promotion of) Turkey in America," he said.

Ertegun founded Atlantic in 1947 -- with the help of a 10,000-dollar loan from his dentist -- as an independent company that was to become one of the most influential labels in music history over the next few decades.

The company's early successes came through the development of a stable of rhythm and blues acts which included, among others, Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Clovers and Ruth Brown.

As music tastes changed, Atlantic turned to British rock, signing on the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and to American pop with Sonny and Cher and Crosby, Stills, Nash et Young.

Other Atlantic stars included John Coltrane, Cream, Dusty Springfield, Genesis, AC/DC, the Bee Gees, Bette Midler, Roberta Flack, ABBA and the Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.

Ertegun was born in Istanbul in 1923. His father was an associate of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who served as a diplomat after the modern republic was proclaimed on the ashes of the Ottoman empire in 1923.

His father's career took the family to Switzerland, France and Britain before they moved to Washington, where Ertegun and his brother, Nesuhi, who was to join him later at Atlantic, explored the black neighborhoods and their music.

The Erteguns' long-standing associate at Atlantic, Grammy-winning producer and fellow Turk Arif Mardin, died in June.

[sal]

The Ertegün brothers also co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League. They were instrumental in bringing in soccer legends like Pele, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer to the club.

I had no idea about that! Thanks Bentsy. Yet another reason why this is so sad.

[GA Russell]

Meaning no disrespect, but I don't agree with the inclusion of the Rolling Stones to his credits. The Stones were hugely popular during their days with British Decca (London in the US). When that contract expired, they formed their own label and contracted with Atlantic to distribute it. I don't think that Atlantic contributed to the Stones' popularity.

As I recall, Cream was on the Polydor label in Britain. That may not be right. I don't think Cream's popularity was due to any Ertegun influence either, but I may be wrong about that.

I've never understood Atlantic's relationship with Stax. It appeared to be a distribution deal. But somehow Atlantic obtained ownership of the masters about 1967. Anybody know why?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've never understood Atlantic's relationship with Stax. It appeared to be a distribution deal. But somehow Atlantic obtained ownership of the masters about 1967. Anybody know why?

Apparently it was a mistake. Ahmet and Jerry Wexler thought the contract they'd signed with Stax was a straight distribution deal, with support for production costs. However, one of Atlantic's lawyers put in a provision under which Atlantic owned all the material they released and all released and unreleased Otis Redding material. When Stax wanted its independence, these bits of small print were found and, according to Wexler, they couldn't forget them, which they were minded to, because Atlantic was no longer independent and he and Ahmet had a duty to Warner/7 Arts.

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

You mean to say the record label moguls let their laywers work out the fine print and then signed the document without even bothering to check what the fine print said?

Or to put it another way, is this to say that those who set their laywers to work on this were not aware of things as important as who owned the rights to certain artists' creative output?

I'm tempted to feel sorry for Stax ...