Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built (2007)

Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built follows Ertegun's remarkable career and its impact on the evolution of the world's most popular musical genre while offering an insider's look at the recording industry. Featuring rare and private clips, performances, and studio sessions from Atlantic recording artists, this DVD is a music fan's paradise.

Better Documentary Than Movie

Because nobody would believe the movie - it would be too implausible from the start: Son of Turkish Diplomat enters American pop music culture and ands up being the major force behind from Charlie Mingus, Miles Coltrane, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, to the The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream; Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; The Who, AC/DC and everybody else who mattered. And 50 even 60 years later still mattered.

If how Rock and Roll came to be has the slightest fascination for you , you must own this. And if nothing else, it makes a great pre-show video for your next concert DVD.




October 7, 2008

THE MOST ACCURATE REVIEW ON THIS DVD

While the talent discoveries of executive music industry luminaries such as Berry Gordy and Clive Davis have been celebrated in the media and lionized in pop music history, Ahmet is perhaps the greatest (in terms of significant artists signed) A&R man the industry has ever known.

Discovering John Mingus, John Coltrane, Wynton Marsalis, the Clovers, the Coasters, the Drifters, Ben E. King, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Roberta Flack, Eric Clapton, Chic, and Kid Rock. He was also instrumental in galvanizing the careers of Booker T. and the MGs, Aretha Franklin, Phil Collins, and Bette Midler - to name a few.

His story, primarily told by Ahmet himself with the help of many of the aforementioned artists, chronlogically documents his life using excerpts of archived footage. It poignantly takes you from the beginning of his journey as the son of a Turkish amabassador, to entrepreneurial owner of his own thriving independent label, to revamped executive at Time Warner owned Atlantic.

Ahmet, who created the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, is the only industry veteran to publicly acknowledge and properly credit black music, in addition to instigating the first financial reparations to black artists for misleading industry practices. He becomes more endearing and engaging the longer this DVD plays on. His should be remembered for how he used his talent to cultivate talent, follow his dreams with tenacity, and inspire others to do the same.

Buy this well-produced DVD of a music lover and music business legend today! June 10, 2008

Ahmet and Jerry screwed Stax out of their masters! Yippee!

Interesting, yet incomplete biography on Atlantic's history, but it needs to be noted that the distribution arrangement that Stax entered with Atlantic has a very dark side to it that is played down. Ertegun and Wexler destroyed Stax with a shady distribution contract that robbed Stax of their masters and left the label with nothing in their catalog! Stax later recovered by sheer force of will. Watch 'Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story' to balance out the 'Ahmet story'. April 18, 2008

Disappointing

What is there is excellent, but I gave it 3 stars because of what they left out. What happened to all the great jazz that Atlantic put out? You'd hardly know that the label was a major force in jazz from the DVD. I mean Mingus, Coltrane, Ornette and a whole bunch more ... How can you ignore these people??
I hope this will be redone properly one day. February 3, 2008

Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built

What an amazing man he was. This was more than I expected it to be. It was very well done, entertaining and informative. I would recommend it to anyone interested in music. November 14, 2007

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