Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records has died at the age of 83. Ertegun helped shape American popular music. He signed and supported rock groups like King Crimson, Led Zeppelin and Genesis as well as legendary jazz artists like Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman.
Ertegun was respected in the business. The founder of Rolling Stone magazine, Jann Wenner, puts it like this in a statement: "Ahmet was perhaps the most revered, respected figure in American popular music of the modern era."
Even the rather cynical Frank Zappa (1940-93) seemed to like Ertegun.
Zappa was known to refer to record company people as "record company pricks", but he named one of his sons after Ertegun...Ahmet Zappa.
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