Music pioneer Ahmet Ertegun dies at 83

[rh]

full story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_ ... et_ertegun

Music pioneer Ahmet Ertegun dies at 83

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer 10 minutes ago

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, died Tuesday at 83, his spokesman said.


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 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 and 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.

To God we belong and to God we return -- inna lillahi wa inna ilahi raji'un.

[dubhlinn]

Lovely link there rh.

May he rest in Peace.

The world owes him respect and thanks for his work and his vision.

Slan,
D.

[djm]

I see Peter Boyle snuffed it too. Aged 71. Interesting to hear that his best man was John Lennon. To me he'll always be Frankenstein's monster.


djm

[chas]

I see Peter Boyle snuffed it too. Aged 71. Interesting to hear that his best man was John Lennon. To me he'll always be Frankenstein's monster.

A friend gave me the news yesterday. He was saying "He'll always be known as. . . " He was looking for the words, so I said, "Frankenstein's monster." He said, "No, Raymond's father!" I was stunned. I must admit, I have accidentally caught some of that show flipping through the channels, so I was aware that Peter Boyle was in it. But there are damn few things in this world that eclipse Young Frankenstein.

Ertegun was a genius, and had such a love of music. Take out an Atlantic record sleeve from about 1970 and look at the record covers that are printed on it. Led Zeppelin. Otis Redding. Aretha. John Coltrane. Herbie Mann. Yusef Lateef. The best of the best. The amazing thing is that he had so many different kinds of music on one (or two counting Atco) label -- pop, blues, soul, jazz, hard rock.

The world is a better place for having had both of these guys.

[Wombat]

Ertegun had an amazing life. Even discounting for the element of luck that every independent record label needed to survive and thrive, Atlantic did amazingly well. The label not only discovered artists, it made the careers of many, suggesting that the owners not only had the ability to spot talent but the ability to record them correctly. Perhaps the most obvious examples are Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles who went from the wings to centre stage at Atlantic, but Joe Turner, Soloman Burke, Ruth Brown and countless others did their most popular work for the label. Most independents discovered maybe one superstar, if that, Atlantic had many. It also managed to succeed in jazz, R&B, rock, soul and pop, something that other highly successful independents like Sun, Stax, Tamla Motown and Chess could not hope to have achieved.

Ertegun deserves a big slice of the credit for this achievement. I can hardly imagine what my listening life would have been like without the Atlantic label.