Atlantic

Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz.

In 1944 brothers Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun elected to remain in the USA when their mother and sister returned to Turkey, following the death of their father Munir Ertegun, who had been the first Turkish Ambassador to the United States.

The brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,000 78rpm records. Ahmet ostensibly stayed on in Washington to undertake post-graduate music studies at Georgetown University but immersed himself in the Washington music scene and decided to enter the record business, then enjoying a resurgence after wartime restrictions on the shellac used in manufacture. He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, a dentistry student, who had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine, and then founded Jubilee Records but had no interest in its most successful artists and now sold his share, investing $2500 in the new label.

Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.

Official Website: www.atlanticrecords.com