ahmet was the founder of atlantic records.
he signed led zeppelin, aretha franklin, ray charles, the rolling stones, otis redding, solomon burke, and too many more remarkable artists to name here.
i got to know ahmet over the last decade, and i always found him to be gracious, funny, and, even in his 80’s, remarkably enthusiastic about music.
a few years ago we were having lunch and he told me how he had started atlantic records out of a suitcase in a hotel room in times square almost 60 years ago.
he didn’t start atlantic records because he wanted to make billions of dollars(which he did, eventually), he started atlantic records because he was deeply and profoundly in love with music.
the word ‘legend’ is thrown around far too easily in the music business, but ahmet ertegun was, in every possible sense of the word, a legend.
-moby
