Post by timmy84 on Dec 14, 2006 22:58:17 GMT -5
Ahmet Ertegun, the man who spearheaded the rhythm and blues genre into an art form with his legendary Atlantic Records label and made Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin stars, died today in a New York hospital after suffering a massive brain injury. He was 83. Ertegun's head injury came in the form of a fall he suffered at a Rolling Stones concert on October 29. He was rushed to the hospital shortly after the accident and was on life support and a coma on his final days.
The son of a Turkish ambassador, Ahmet Ertegun collected records for fun as a kid but in 1947, he and Herb Abramson put together enough money to co-found the Atlantic Records label. Eventually hiring older brother Neshui Ertegun, legendary engineer Tim Dowd and legendary record producer Jerry Wexler into the mix, Atlantic Records made the R&B genre an art form and also had an important emergence in pop, psychedelic rock and soul. The label made stars out of Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd to name a few. The Rolling Stones added to this legend when they joined the label in the '70s. Ertegun was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Ertegun is just another of the architects of the legendary Atlantic sound to die in the past couple of years. The other architects who have died in recent years include Tom Dowd, who died in 2003, Ray Charles who died of lung cancer in 2004, and just recently, Ruth Brown, who was the label's first actual hit maker and helped Atlantic coin the label as "the house that Ruth built" died last month at 78. Ahmet's brother Neshui died in 1989 and Abramson died in 1999.
to Ahmet...
The son of a Turkish ambassador, Ahmet Ertegun collected records for fun as a kid but in 1947, he and Herb Abramson put together enough money to co-found the Atlantic Records label. Eventually hiring older brother Neshui Ertegun, legendary engineer Tim Dowd and legendary record producer Jerry Wexler into the mix, Atlantic Records made the R&B genre an art form and also had an important emergence in pop, psychedelic rock and soul. The label made stars out of Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd to name a few. The Rolling Stones added to this legend when they joined the label in the '70s. Ertegun was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Ertegun is just another of the architects of the legendary Atlantic sound to die in the past couple of years. The other architects who have died in recent years include Tom Dowd, who died in 2003, Ray Charles who died of lung cancer in 2004, and just recently, Ruth Brown, who was the label's first actual hit maker and helped Atlantic coin the label as "the house that Ruth built" died last month at 78. Ahmet's brother Neshui died in 1989 and Abramson died in 1999.
to Ahmet...
...however I will give him a thank you for helping to break some of our artists...