Cocking his ear to the music of every country he resided in, Ertegün says the first records he listened to at home were by Josephine Baker, Mae West and the Mills Brothers. American music was highly popular in the Europe of that era, but now and then a French or Italian song would intrude itself. The person who really introduced him to music, however, was his big brother Nasuhi Bey. Thanks to him Ahmet Ertegün, who was then only seven years old, got to hear the Duke Ellington Band live in London. Before long he and his brother had started a terrific jazz collection, and by the time he was 18 Ahmet Ertegün had more than fifty thousand records, while his brother had become a music critic who also was the first person to give courses in the history of jazz at U.S. universities.

HE STARTED ATLANTIC RECORDS AS A HOBBY
In an interview Ahmet Ertegün went on record as believing that most of his rivals didn’t like music.