His Atlantic Records would become one of the most important homes for gospel, jazz and R&B artists through the ages.

A songwriter himself, who championed the careers of BMI legends Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, among many other musical greats, Ertegun was loyal to BMI for 53 years until his passing in 2006. One such figure in the late forties was Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish-American businessman who founded Atlantic Records in 1947. During this era, BMI licensed more than 90 percent of R&B radio hits on a weekly basis.ДЄ continuity of teamwork exists to this day between BMI and great entrepreneurial minds in the music business who share the CompanyвЂ™s vision for the future of American popular music.

In the post-war forties, as major record companies closed their doors on African-American artists and the existing performing rights organization failed to recognize the legitimacy of jazz and the promise of an emerging musical movement known as R&B, BMI allied with budding independent labels, adventurous radio stations and small publishing houses to find an avenue for the music. To this day, BMI continues the tradition it started in the late 1930s of nurturing the great (and often overlooked) American art form with the BMI FoundationвЂ™s Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize, awarded annually to the best new work created in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. As Bird and be-bop were changing the tune of jazz, BMI affiliated a budding Lester Young and Billie Holiday, building the foundation of what would eventually become an unparalleled jazz catalog featuring the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lionel Hampton, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove. It was the same year in which saxophonist Charlie Parker hit on a new method of soloing while playing вЂњCherokeeвЂќ in a New York jam session, giving birth to be-bop. The story can be traced back to 1939, the year in which BMI was founded. From the early days of rhythm & blues through todayвЂ™s multifaceted hip-hop music scene, BMI has been at the forefront, recognizing the promise of musical geniuses before they came to be celebrated as such.

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