Herb Abramson
| Herb Abramson | |
|---|---|
Abramson and his wife, , c. 1947
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| Born |
Herbert C. Abramson November 16, 1916 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 9, 1999 (aged 82) Henderson, Nevada, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1946–1999 |
| Labels | |
Herbert C. Abramson (November 16, 1916 – November 9, 1999) was an American record company executive, producer and co-founder of Atlantic Records.
Abramson was born in 1916 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and initially studied to be a dentist but he landed a job with National Records producing such performers as Clyde McPhatter, The Ravens, Billy Eckstine and Joe Turner. Abramson founded his first record company, Jubilee Records, in 1946 with Jerry Blaine. Abramson aspired to record jazz, R&B and Gospel recordings. Though Blaine was having some success recording Jewish novelty records, this genre did not interest Abramson, so he sold his interest in Jubilee to Blaine. Abramson and his wife were close friends with fellow jazz buff Ahmet Ertegün who recognized Abramson's talent and came to Abramson with a label proposal and together they founded Atlantic Records in 1947. Abramson was president of Atlantic and Ertegün was vice-president. Both Abramson and Ertegün handled the creative end of the business and Miriam handled the business end.
In 1953, he was drafted into the U. S. Armed Forces which put him out of touch with the company which continued to enjoy great success while he was away. Jerry Wexler filled in while Abramson was serving the nation and joined Atlantic as a partner in his absence while Abramson retained the title of President of the company. When Abramson returned from the Army in 1955, he found Atlantic a changed company. Ertegün's brother Nesuhi had joined Atlantic in 1955 as a partner and was enjoying great success in jazz LPs. Ertegün and Wexler were recording R&B hits which crossed over into pop. Complicating things was his failing marriage to Miriam which would end in divorce which was precipitated when Abramson returned home from Germany with a pregnant girlfriend who became his second wife.
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