Nesuhi Ertegün
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Nesuhi Ertegün (November 26, 1917 – April 15, 1989), was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records.
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[edit] Background
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Nesuhi and his family, including younger brother Ahmet, moved to Washington, D.C. in 1935 with their father Münir Ertegün, who was appointed the Turkish Ambassador to the United States in that year.
From an early age, Nesuhi’s primary musical interest was jazz, attending concerts in Europe before his family moved to the USA. While living at the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., he promoted jazz concerts during 1941-44.
[edit] Career
When his father died in 1944, and most of the rest of his family returned to Turkey, Nesuhi decided to stay in the USA and moved to California. He took over the Jazz Man Record Shop in Los Angeles, which, in addition to selling records produced by other labels, also produced their own on the Jazz Man and Crescent labels. At Jazz Man, Nasuhi produced classic Kid Ory revival recordings in 1944 and 1945.
Although his main interest was initially New Orleans jazz, which he also wrote about while serving as the editor of Record Changer magazine, Ertegün was open to more modern styles. During 1951-54 he taught, at UCLA, the first history of jazz course ever given at a major American university.
In 1955, he was preparing to work for Imperial Records to develop their jazz record line and develop a catalog of LPs. However, Ahmet Ertegün and Jerry Wexler persuaded him instead to join their company, Atlantic Records, where he was made a partner.[1] He became vice-president in charge of the jazz and LP department at Atlantic, building up the label’s extensive catalog of jazz LPs. He was responsible for investing in the album market, improving the quality of recordings and sleeve formats.
As a producer at Atlantic he worked with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, the Modern Jazz Quartet and many others. Nesuhi also became involved with the label’s rhythm & blues and rock and roll roster, first recruiting songwriters and producers Leiber and Stoller, with whom he had worked in California, and producing several hit records for Ray Charles, the Drifters, Bobby Darin and Roberta Flack.
With Ahmet, he also co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League. They were instrumental in bringing in soccer legends like Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer to the club.
In 1971, Nesuhi founded WEA International, now Warner Music International. He remained head of the Warner Records International Division until he retired in 1987.
Nesuhi was an avid collector of Surrealist art. His collection (along with that of his friend's, Daniel Filipacchi) was exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York in 1999 in “Surrealism: Two Private Eyes, the Nesuhi Ertegun and Daniel Filipacchi Collections”--an event described by The New York Times as: “a gourmet banquet,” large enough to “pack the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from ceiling to lobby with a powerful exhibition.” [1]
Nesuhi Ertegün was inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievements in 1995. For his contributions to the sport of soccer, he and Ahmet were inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003. The Nesuhi Ertegün Jazz Hall of Fame at Jazz at Lincoln Center was dedicated to him in 2004.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ David Edwards and Mike Callahan - The Atlantic Records Story
[edit] References
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Biography of Nesuhi Ertegün
- Guggenheim Museum Publications (1999). Surrealism: Two Private Eyes, the Nesuhi Ertegun and Daniel Filipacchi Collections. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.
