Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and championed many leading rhythm and blues and rock musicians. Ertegun also wrote classic blues and pop songs. He served as the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Ertegun has been described as "one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry."[1] In 2017 he was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in recognition of his work in the music business.
Ertegun was born Ahmet Munir in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 31, 1923.[3] His mother, Hayrünnisa, was an accomplished musician who played keyboard and stringed instruments. She bought the popular records of the day, to which Ahmet and his brother, Nesuhi listened.[4] His older brother Nesuhi introduced him to jazz music, taking him at the age of nine to see the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway orchestras in London.[5] In 1935, Ahmet and his family moved to Washington, D.C., with his father, Munir Ertegun, who was appointed as the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States.[6] When Ahmet was 14, his mother bought him a record-cutting machine, which he used to compose and add lyrics to instrumental records.
Ertegun's love for music pulled him into the heart of Washington, DC's black district where he would routinely see such top acts as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. He attended Landon School, an affluent all-male private school in Bethesda, Maryland. Ahmet joked, "I got my real education at the Howard" — Howard being the Howard Theatre, an historic performance space located in Washington, DC.[7][8] Despite his affluent upbringing, Ertegun began to see a different world from his affluent peers. Ertegun would later say: "I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination, because, although Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs."[7]
Ertegun and his brother frequented Milt Gabler's Commodore Music Shop, assembled a collection of over 15,000 jazz and blues 78s, and became acquainted with musicians such as Ellington, Lena Horne and Jelly Roll Morton. Ahmet and Nesuhi staged concerts by Lester Young, Sidney Bechet and other jazz giants. They also traveled to New Orleans and to Harlem to listen to music and develop a keen awareness of developing musical tastes.
Atlantic Records logo from its inception in 1947 to 1966 (it was still used on 7" single releases), used again from 1979 to 1981 and 2004 to 2015.
Ertegun graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis in 1944. In November of the same year, Munir Ertegun died. In 1946 President Harry Truman ordered the battleship USS Missouri to return his body to Turkey as a demonstration of friendship between the US and Turkey. This show of support was meant to counter the Soviet Union's potential political demands on Turkey.
Soon afterward, when the rest of the family returned permanently to Turkey, Ahmet and Nesuhi stayed in the United States. While Nesuhi moved to Los Angeles, Ahmet stayed in Washington and decided to get into the record business as a temporary measure to help him through college.
In 1946, Ertegun became friends with Herb Abramson, a dental student and A&R man for National Records, and they decided to start a new independent record label for gospel, jazz, and R&B music. Financed by family dentist Dr. Vahdi Sabit, they formed Atlantic Records in September 1947 in New York City. The first recording sessions took place that November.
Like the Erteguns, many independent record executives were from immigrant backgrounds, including the Bihari and the Chess brothers. The Ertegun brothers brought a jazz sensibility (and many jazz artists) into R&B, successfully combining blues and jazz styles from around the country. Atlantic helped challenge the primacy of the major labels of the time by discovering, developing, and nurturing new talent. It became the premier rhythm and blues label in a few years and, with the help of innovative engineer/producer Tom Dowd, set new standards in producing high-quality recordings. Atlantic was among the first labels to record in stereo, and in 1957 was the first record company to utilize an 8-track tape machine.[9]
Ertegun himself wrote a number of classic blues songs, including "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen", under the pseudonym "A. Nugetre" ("Ertegun" backwards). The songs were given expression first by Big Joe Turner and continued in B.B. King's repertoire. "Chains of Love" was a popular hit for Pat Boone. He also wrote the Ray Charles hit "Mess Around", with lyrics that drew heavily on "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie". He was briefly listed as "Nuggy" in the credits before changing to "A. Nugetre". Ertegun was part of the shouting choral group on Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", along with Wexler and songwriter Jesse Stone. He also wrote "Ting A Ling", a 1956 hit for The Clovers that was covered by Buddy Holly. "Fool, Fool, Fool", another Clovers song was a hit for Kay Starr. His "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" was recorded by Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, and in an international version by Adriano Celentano.
The five lines of the lyrics of "Lovey Dovey" by the Clovers were used by Steve Miller in his hit "The Joker". Other Nugetre rhythm and blues hits include "Whatcha Gonna Do" by The Drifters, "Wild, Wild Young Men" by Ruth Brown, Ray Charles's "Heartbreaker", "Middle of the Night" by The Clovers, "Ti-Ri-Lee" by Big Joe Turner, and "Story of My Love" by LaVern Baker. All of these were originally recorded for Atlantic Records. He also wrote "Missä Olit Silloin (Dawn in Ankara)" for Finnish singer Irina Milan as Ahmet Ertegun.
In 1958, Ertegun replaced Abramson as Atlantic's president and Abramson left the company after selling his financial interest.[10]
Marriages
On 6 January 1953 Ertegun married Jan Holm (née Enstam), a Swedish-American actress, fashion model, and set designer, who was the daughter of Carl Enstam and the former wife of Edward Walter Rathbun. She and Ertegun had no children and divorced in about 1956.[11][12]
In 1961 he married Ioana Maria "Mica" Grecianu, the former wife of Stefan Grecianu and a daughter of Gheorghe Banu, a Romanian doctor and statesman. Mica later became a well-known interior designer, a co-founder of the decorating firm MAC II. The couple had no children.[13][12]: 143–146
Ertegun initially had no desire to sell Atlantic, but his partner Jerry Wexler was nervous about the label's future and after convincing Ertegun's brother Nesuhi of his position, Ertegun eventually conceded and they sold Atlantic to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1967 for $17 million in stock, although Wexler later admitted that, because of assets like the rights to the hit movie Woodstock and the accompanying record, the deal paid them less than half of what the label was actually worth.[15] Wexler had seen the other 1950s independent record labels disappear with the waning popularity of rhythm and blues, and said only Ertegun's foresightful adaptation of signing white rock musicians turned out to be the basis of Atlantic's continued success.[16] Four years later, the Ertegun brothers took some of the money and co-founded the New York CosmosAssociation football (soccer) team of the North American Soccer League. They were instrumental in bringing soccer legends like Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer to the club. They transformed the Cosmos into a "dream team".
When Atlantic became part of the Kinney conglomerate in 1969, and later part of Time Warner, Atlantic Records continued with Ertegun at the helm, and although he was less directly involved as a producer, he wielded considerable influence in the new conglomerate. He continued to produce some rock acts, such as Dr. John and The Honeydrippers. He also used his considerable personal skills in negotiations with major stars, such as when The Rolling Stones were shopping for a record company to distribute their independent Rolling Stones Records label. Ertegun personally conducted the negotiations with Mick Jagger, successfully completing the deal between the Stones and Atlantic, when other labels had actually offered the band more money. He took a personal interest in the progressive rock band Yes, and took a strong stand with bassist Chris Squire on the direction of the 90125 album. He encouraged Squire and the group to make sure the album produced a hit single, which it did with "Owner of a Lonely Heart".
In 1987 Ertegun was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, of which he himself was a founder. In the late 1980s, with the support of Bonnie Raitt and others, he provided $1.5 million to help establish the Rhythm and Blues Foundation to award money to underpaid blues artists. The Foundation's establishment arose from a lengthy battle by Ruth Brown and other Atlantic artists to obtain unpaid past royalties from the company; other record companies later also contributed. Among early recipients of payments were John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Ruth Brown and the Staple Singers. In 1988, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[17]
Ertegun received an honorary doctorate in music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1991, and was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1993. At the tenth annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Dinner in 1995, it was announced that the museum's main exhibition hall would be named after him.
Ertegun approved the recording and release of Music of the Whirling Dervishes, featuring ayin singer Kâni Karaca and ney player Akagündüz Kutbay on the Atlantic label.
Philanthropy
In addition to being a seminal figure in the history of popular music, Ertegun was also a prominent philanthropist dedicated to enhancing relations and cultural understanding between the United States and his native country, Turkey. As the chairman of The American Turkish Society, he introduced numerous American dignitaries, business leaders, investors, and artists to Turkey and garnered U.S. support for Turkey. Following the devastating earthquake near Istanbul in 1999, Ertegun was instrumental in the success of the Society's Earthquake Relief Fund, which raised over $4 million for Turkey's rebuilding efforts, particularly in education.[20]
In addition to his endeavors at The American Turkish Society, Ertegun funded the Turkish studies departments at Princeton and Georgetown universities. In 2008, the Ahmet Ertegun Memorial Scholarship, established by the American Turkish Society, was officially announced and designated for music students of Turkish descent to study at the Juilliard School.[21]
Ertegun was buried December 18 in the Garden of Sufi Tekke, Özbekler Tekkesi in Sultantepe, Üsküdar, Istanbul next to his brother, his father and his sheikh great-grandfather Şeyh İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the tekke in his native Turkey.
In honor of the barriers the Ertegun brothers broke during their time in segregated Washington, the Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Namik Tan, hosted a series of jazz concerts at the historical residence on Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C. The "Ertegun Jazz Series," in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, reviving the brothers' legacy of bridging cultures and bringing people together with one common objective: celebrating music. In that same spirit, Ambassador Tan opened the doors of his home to residents of D.C. from various backgrounds – Members of Congress, Administration officials, academia, the media, business leaders, and others.
Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off show in a tribute to Ertegun at The O2 Arena in London on December 10, 2007. It remains one of only four times the band's surviving members have reunited since drummer John Bonham's death in 1980; the other three being the 1985 Live Aid concert, the 1988 Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert (which Ertegun attended) and their 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It remains their only full concert since their official break-up in 1980.
The band headlined a bill that also included Paolo Nutini, Mick Jones of Foreigner and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings who supported their acts, and additionally shared the stage with them. The show was held to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. The show had been scheduled for late November but was postponed by two weeks because Jimmy Page fractured a finger.
Musician Frank Zappa named his son Ahmet after Ertegun, who played an important role in Zappa's early career.[citation needed] Ertegun is also briefly mentioned in Zappa's film 200 Motels.
In December 2006 (shortly after Ertegun's death),[30]Harut Sassounian, an Armenian-American writer and contributor for The Huffington Post,[30] published an op-ed in which he claims that he had talked personally with Ertegun some time before his death, and that Ertegun did acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,[30] and he even wished to speak publicly about it;[30] according to Sassounian, Ertegun "firmly believed that once Ankara put the issue of the Genocide behind it, the country would attain the respect of the international community and would not waste its efforts and resources to counter Armenian efforts for Genocide recognition".[30] The writer ends his piece by explaining: "I could not write this column while he [Ertegun] was alive, since I did not want him to become the target of hate mails and threats from Turkish extremists by alerting them that he was considering the possibility of issuing a public statement on the Armenian Genocide. Alas, he passed away without being able to do so, which is a great loss for both Armenians and Turks. I hasten to add that it is a greater loss for Turkey. Ertegun believed that by acknowledging the Genocide, Turkey would earn many political dividends and lose practically nothing!"[30]
2017 sexual harassment/assault allegation
In 2017, Dorothy Carvello alleged that Ertegun tried to remove her underwear and groped her under her shirt at a public event in 1987. Her book Anything for a Hit tells of her experiences.[31]
^"IAJE What's Going On". Jazz Education Journal. 37 (5). Manhattan, Kansas: International Association of Jazz Educators: 87. April 2005. ISSN1540-2886. ProQuest1370090.
^Make It Funky! (DVD). Culver City, California: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005. ISBN9781404991583. OCLC61207781. 11952.
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