Ahmet Ertegun RIP
I've never felt much affiliation or admiration or even interest in "giants" of the recording industry because i don't really feel like what we do is a part of the "recording industry" and most of them seem like crass cheeseballs. but Ahmet and Herb Abramson started a pretty great little label -- Atlantic Records -- with just ten grand back in 1947. to think of the ground they covered in soul and jazz (not to mention rock, i can't picture a Led Zeppelin album without picturing the Atlantic logo) it's hard to really get your head around the place in American music that the Erteguns (i didn't realize that his brother Nesuhi didn't come on board until '55) carved out (with the help of friends like Jerry Wexler of course)... and while they didn't do what they did without playing some hardball, it always seemed like their success was based originally on their fandom, personal taste and instincts about the music itself. but what do i know?
Associated Press has the obit, though i'm hoping much more will be written in days to come.
image courtesy the fabulous Soulwalking site.
posted by Mac at 11:20 AM
1 Comments:
Ahmet Ertegun always seemed to me to be a little hipper than most other guys in his position. He also seems to have remained a fan and lover of music throughout his life, and had many close relationships with Atlantic artists. I read an old interview in Slate http://www.slate.com/id/2155601/ yesterday where he talked about the early years. Pretty interesting stuff. Not only was his father the Turkish ambassador to the US, he was a chief advisor to Ataturk!
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