*Nesuhi Ertegun was born on November 26, 1917. He was a white Turkish-American record producer and Atlantic Records and WEA International executive.
Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi and his family moved to Washington, DC, in 1935 when their father was appointed the Turkish Ambassador to the United States that year. From an early age, Nesuhi's primary musical interest was jazz. He had attended concerts in Europe before his family moved to the United States.
While living at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC, he promoted jazz concerts during 1941-1944. When his father died in 1944, and the rest of his family returned to Turkey, Nesuhi moved to California, where he married Jazz Man Record Shop owner Marili Morden and helped run the shop and establish the Crescent Records label. After purchasing Jazz Man Records, he discontinued Crescent and issued traditional jazz recordings on Jazz Man until 1952. At Jazz Man, Nesuhi produced classic Kid Ory revival recordings in 1944 and 1945.
Although his main interest was initially New Orleans jazz, Ertegun was open to more modern styles. He sold the Jazz Man label in 1952 and was engaged to teach the first history of jazz course for academic credit at a major US university, UCLA. In 1955, he joined Atlantic Records and was made a partner. He became vice president 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 and improving the quality of recordings and sleeve formats. As a producer at Atlantic, he worked with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Ornette Coleman, whom Lester Koenig had previously recorded at Contemporary, 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, Chris Connor, the Drifters, Bobby Darin, and Roberta Flack. In 1971, Ertegun founded WEA International, now Warner Music Group. While at WEA International, Nesuhi demonstrated tremendous independence and character, often going against the wishes of his US counterparts. He remained head of the Warner Records International Division until he retired in 1987.
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 Giorgio Chinaglia, Pelé, Carlos Alberto, and Franz Beckenbauer to the club. Nesuhi Ertegun, an avid collector of Surrealist art, died on July 15, 1989, at 71. Ertegun was inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 1991. He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievements in 1995. For his contributions to soccer, he and Ahmet were inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003. The Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame (now the Ertegun Hall of Fame) at Jazz at Lincoln Center was named after him in 2004.
