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[keybdplyr]

Anybody else see this last night on PBS’s American Masters television series? I didn’t see all of it, but the hour or so I did see was terrific. First hand interviews and modern footage with Ahmet in one on one discussions with some of the all time great Atlantic artists including Ray Charles, Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc. (I missed the beginning with the very early R & B artists) about “the good old days” and today. Jerry Wexler, Stax, Woodstock, everything, really. Runs through Kid Rock and wraps up around 2005. Ahmet’s death is mentioned in sort of a short post script.

Cool to hear him tell the history of Atlantic in his own words, from a (nearly) current perspective, and cool that it is given enough time be deeply developed as a story and not just a “fast forward” through history.

I believe it’s also on DVD. Great stuff, if you like music documentaries .....and I DO.

Memorable tidbit about Woodstock. Atlantic agreed to pay $75000 for the music rights to the whole concert and was offered the movie rights for $25000. Ahmet said “Movie rights???!!!! What good are the movie rights?” as there was no such thing as concert movies at the time, really. Eventually, Atlantic did buy both rights for $100,000. Atlantic was later sold to Warner Bros. and these “forgotten” movie rights were under control of Warner Bros. who consequently released the great music documentary of Woodstock. Ironically, Ahmet noted that Warner Bros. made more money from the Woodstock movie than from the ENTIRE Atlantic record catalog they had purchased!

[mewsical]

I recorded it and plan to watch it over the weekend. It came on a bit late here and I want to give it my full attention. I'm a HUGE admirer of Ahmet's, Jerry's, Tom Dowd and the entire Atlantic Records history. Ahmet was a master of soul, imo. They don't make them like that anymore, unfortunately.

[mewsical]

I did get to it last week - though still have a half-hour left to watch. All I can say is "Bravo!" Wonderful - like spending some time with Ahmet himself. One of the world's great storytellers, let alone being a truly valuable testament to the brilliant contributions of the brothers Ertegun to the world of music and culture.