Legendary Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegen
has died following complications suffered from
a fall at a recent
Rolling Stones concert celebrating Bill Clinton’s birthday.
He was 83.
The latest generation of music entrepreneurs often finds it easy to dismiss the old school execs as robber barons, but Ahmet Ertegun was royalty of a different sort. The son of a Turkish diplomat, Ertegun was an industry force through three decades as the Atlantic Records he
co-founded became the home in 1950;s of Ray
Charles, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, the Drifters, the
Coasters
and Solomon Burke,. Then in the 1960s and 1970s the label
housed Aretha Franklin; Led Zeppelin; Cream; Yes;
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Sonny & Cher.
Ahmet Ertegun was a man worth
reading more about: LA Times, Wikipedia, audio via NPR, and we particularly recommend "An Appreciation" by former LA Times Editor Robert Hilburn.
