Atlantic Records

Herbert C. Abramson was an American record company executive and producer. He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York City and initially studied to be a dentist but he landed a job with National Records producing such performers as 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 Miriam were close friends with fellow jazz buff Ahmet Ertegün and together they founded Atlantic Records in 1947. Abramson was president of Atlantic and Ahmet was vice-president. Both Abramson and Ahmet handled the creative end of the business and Miriam handled the business end. In 1953, he was drafted into the Army which put him out of touch with the company which nevertheless enjoyed great success while he was away. Jerry Wexler joined Atlantic as a partner in his absence while Abramson retained the title of president of the company.
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