Nesuhi Ertegun was the son of the Turkish ambassador to the United States. From an early age he showed an interest in American jazz and by the time he was in his early 20’s Nesuhi was promoting jazz concerts around Washington, D.C. When his father died in 1944 and the rest of his family returned to Turkey, Nesuhi moved to California and married the owner of a jazz record shop. He helped run the store and also founded his own record label, Crescent Records. Nesuhi Ertegun was born on November 26, 1917 in Istanbul.

Ertegun founded Crescent Records for the purpose of recording New Orleans jazz legend and trombonist Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band and did so in 1944. Ertegun recorded mostly traditional jazz stars throughout his time with Crescent and later at Jazz Man Records and these records were a significant force in the New Orleans revival of the 1940s. He also made records with Bill Daily, Mutt Carey, Jimmy Noone and Turk Murphy.

In the early 1950s Nesuhi Ertegun taught the first jazz history course for academic credit offered at a major U.S. university when he was hired at UCLA. Later in the decade he joined Jerry Wexler and Nesuhi’s brother Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records in New York City. He became vice president in charge of jazz at the label. While there he produced landmark albums by John Coltrane, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Charles Mingus, Herbie Mann, Mose Allison, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman. He also did work outside the jazz realm producing records for Ray Charles, The Drifters, Bobby Darin and Roberta Flack. In 1971 Nesuhi left Atlantic to form what is now known as Warner Music Group where he remained until his retirement in 1987.

Nesuhi was the first president of the National Association of recording Arts and Sciences which awards the Grammys. He and his brother Ahmet were also co-founders of the New York Cosmos soccer club, the most successful NASL side of the 1970s. Nesuhi died in 1989 at the age of 71 and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, as well as receiving a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1995. The Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center in New York City was named for him in 2004.

Here is a link to a cut from a Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh album from 1955 produced by Nesuhi Ertegun:

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