Atlantic Records was formed in New York City in
1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Both
Ertegun and Abramson were avid record collectors
specializing in jazz and rhythm and blues. In 1953
fellow R&B aficionado Jerry Wexler became a partner, with Abramson parting shortly thereafter. While
never a blues label per se, from the late 1940s through
the early 1970s, Atlantic recorded a startling array of
blues talent in New York City, Chicago, and at various locations during Southern field recording trips.
The net results manifest what Jim O’Neal has termed,
in his liner notes for Atlantic Blues: Piano, ‘‘the founders’ appreciation for roots coupled with an ear for
commercial potential.’’
Atlantic’s earliest blues recordings included two
top five R&B singles by the New York-based guitarist/vocalist Sticks McGhee, ‘‘Drinkin’ Wine Spo-DeeO-Dee’’ (1949) and ‘‘Tennessee Waltz Blues’’ (1951), as well as seminal sides by New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair, Chicago boogie-woogie pianists
Jimmy Yancey and Meade ‘‘Lux’’ Lewis, Yancey’s
wife, ‘‘Mama’’ Estelle Yancey, Atlanta twelve-string
wizard ‘‘Blind’’ Willie McTell, West Coast guitarist
‘‘Texas’’ Johnny Brown (with Amos Milburn on
piano), Chicago pianist Eurreal ‘‘Little Brother’’ Montgomery, and Vann ‘‘Piano Man’’ Walls (who also
played on numerous Atlantic sessions as a sideman).
In the mid- and late 1950s Atlantic continued
apace, cutting sides with the Kansas City team of
vocalist Big Joe Turner and pianist Pete Johnson,
New Orleans pianist ‘‘Champion’’ Jack Dupree, Crescent City guitarist Guitar Slim, the Los Angeles-based
pianist and balladeer Floyd Dixon, West Coast guitarist T-Bone Walker, jump-blues singer Wynonie
Harris, and, at the end of the decade, Mississippi
bluesman Fred McDowell. In the early 1960s Atlantic
issued a series of albums of field recordings done by
folklorist Alan Lomax of both black and white Southern musicians that included substantial blues material.
While Atlantic issued few blues recordings in the
mid-1960s, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
company devoted considerable resources to signing,
recording, and marketing white rock groups. Among
mainstream pop artists such as the Bee Gees and Iron
Butterfly were an inordinate number of groups such
as Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band,
the Rolling Stones, and the J. Geils Band. These
bands featured guitarists such as Eric Clapton,
Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, and Keith Richards,
who recorded covers of blues standards and wrote
newer work that was manifestly rooted in the blues.
Beginning in 1967 Atlantic also recorded the white
acoustic blues guitarist John Hammond, Jr.
Continuing to tap into the blues revival, in 1968
Atlantic activated its Cotillion subsidiary, recording
albums by black blues artists Freddie King and Otis
Rush, and in 1972 the company issued Buddy Guy and
Junior Wells Play the Blues on Atco. In the late 1960s,
Atlantic and its subsidiaries also issued singles by
Johnny Copeland and Z. Z. Hill. New Orleans pianist
Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack) recorded a series of
albums that, while marketed toward the white rock
demographic, contained substantial R&B content.
Finally, in the 1970s and 1980s, Atlantic was assiduous in reissuing various of its blues recordings. Its
Blues Original LP covering the Professor Longhair
sessions from 1949 and 1953 helped spark a revival
of Longhair’s career. At the same time, Atlantic issued a plethora of live albums documenting various
festivals including Woodstock, Mar Y Sol, the Ann
Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz
Festival, and the Soul to Soul concert in Ghana.
Each of these albums included performances by
blues artists ranging from B. B. King, Howlin’ Wolf,
and J. B. Hutto to Stevie Ray Vaughan and the
Butterfield Blues Band.
ROBERT BOWMAN
Bibliography
McGrath
Ertegun, Ahmet. ‘‘What’d I Say?’’—The Atlantic Records
Story: 50 Years of Music. New York: Welcome Rain
Publishers, 2001.
Gillett, Charlie. Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and the
Growth of a Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry. New York:
E. P. Dutton, 1974.
———. Liner notes for Atlantic Blues: Piano. New York:
Atlantic Records, 1986.
O’Neal, Jim. Liner notes for Atlantic Blues: Vocalists. New
York: Atlantic Records, 1986.
Shurman, Dick. Liner notes for Atlantic Blues: Chicago.
New York: Atlantic Records, 1986.