Fond farewells

New York

Ahmet Ertegun was the greatest Turk since Kemal Ataturk, but unlike Mustafa Kemal he never killed anyone, especially a Greek. In brief, Ertegun was the supreme record man, the signer of the most important rhythm & blues, jazz, pop and rock artists of all time, the founder and builder of Atlantic Records, a company he began with the $10,000 he borrowed from his dentist. He was a diplomat’s son, his father having served as ambassador to Paris and Washington, among other posts. I met him in 1956 and we stayed friends until his death last October, when he slipped at a jazz concert, fell and hit his head and never recovered.

The first time I met him, we were walking down Third Avenue on a mild summer evening when he heard some cool jazz coming from an Edward Hopper-like house where a party was going on. A tall, good-looking man surrounded by young girls waved us to come up, which we eagerly did. Our host was Michael Butler, polo player, man-about-town, and later on producer of Hair. It was my first party in the Big Bagel, and I got some good tips on how the game was played. Ahmet was cool, to say the least, and we came off with some good addresses. His first big signing was Ray Charles, quickly followed by Big Joe Turner, Bobby Darin, Esther Phillips, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. Atlantic Records became America’s pre-eminent independent label, and in the mid-Sixties Ertegun expanded Atlantic’s focus from R&B and soul music into the emerging sounds of rock’n’roll. He signed Sonny and Cher, Led Zeppelin and Buffalo Springfield. Then he hit it big with the Rolling Stones — and also began partying with those very naughty boys.