Arif Mardin (born on March 15, 1932 in Istanbul, died on June 25, 2006 in New York) is a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with many renowned artists of many different genres of music including rock, disco, jazz, soul and country.
He worked at Atlantic Records, which was founded by Turkish-American businessman Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson, for over 30 years as a producer, arranger, studio manager, and vice president, before he transferred to British transnational conglomerate EMI as vice president and later to Manhattan Records as general manager.
His musical collaborations include working with Ringo Starr, Carly Simon, Phil Collins, Daniel Rodriguez, Danny O’Keefe, The Rascals, Queen, John Prine, Dionne Warwick, Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Michael Crawford, the Bee Gees, Hall & Oates, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan and Laura Nyro. The musician was awarded eleven Grammy Awards and has eighteen nominations.
Early Life
Mardin was born in Istanbul’s Şişli district to a well-known family that included many aristocrats, such as civil servants and diplomats in addition to prominent figures in the civic, military and business sectors of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. The Mardin family is also said to hail from the lineage of Prophet Muhammad.
His mother, Fatma Fahire Mardin also came from a renowned family, being the daughter of former Minister of Justice Necmettin Kocataş. His father, Muhiddin Arif Mardin, was the co-owner in a petroleum gas station chain.
Growing up listening to the likes of Bing Cosby and Glenn Miller, Mardin became increasingly interested in the fine art.
Meeting music critic Cüneyt Sermet, who was an acquaintance of his older sister Betül Mardin – a well-known public relations specialist who herself was also very much into music, especially jazz – he took his first step into the art. Sermet guided him through his music career as a mentor.
After graduating from Istanbul University’s Department of Economics, he went on to study at the London School of Economics. His first attempts at music making came during this time, even though he largely approached it as a hobby as Mardin had never planned a career in music before.
A legendary musical career
The event that turned the tables for his career was his meeting with American jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones at a concert in capital Ankara.
Deciding that he belonged to music after being struck by the two’s tunes, he moved on to send three demo compositions to a friend of his, Tahir Sur, who at the time worked at a radio station in the United States. Sur took the three demos to Quincy Jones, who in turn was very impressed with Mardin’s music.
The jazz great, who saw Mardin’s talent, granted him the Quincy Jones Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, prompting the Turkish musician and his fiancé at the time, Latife to move from Istanbul to the city.
After three years of education at the college which would later award him with an honorary doctorate, Mardin graduated in 1961 and taught at the same institution for a year before moving to New York City to make his entry into the scene.
Mardin began his music career at the Atlantic Records, which was founded by Turkish-American entrepreneur and jazz enthusiast Ahmet Ertegün.
The musician’s first role at the company when he started working there in 1963 was an assistant to Nesuhi Ertegün, the founder’s brother.
During his first times at the company, Mardin worked closely with prominent jazz musicians Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt. With his prominent skills and musical talent, Mardin rose through the ranks in the company in a short time, first becoming the studio manager then label house producer and arranger.
In just six years, he became the Vice President of the company and later served as Senior Vice President until 2001.
During his time at the Label, Mardin worked closely on many projects with co-founders Ertegün and Jerry Wexler, as well as renowned recording engineer Tom Dowd.
Helping greats get greater
At the helm of the Atlantic, Mardin produced many renowned music greats such as The Rascals, Carly Simon, Petula Clark, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Modern Jazz Quartet, Willie Nelson, John Prine, David Bowie, Jewel, Ringo Starr, Leo Sayer, Dusty Springfield, Queen, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Lulu, Hall & Oates, Donny Hathaway, Jeffrey Osborne, Norah Jones, Margie Joseph, Thereza Bazar, Daniel Rodriguez, Chaka Khan, George Benson, Melissa Manchester, Anita Baker, Judy Collins, Phil Collins, Scritti Politti, Culture Club, Roberta Flack, Average White Band and The Manhattan Transfer.
Guiding Norah Jones’s best-selling album “Come Away With Me,” Mardin was also partly responsible for Aretha Franklin’s early soul albums “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” which featured the song “Respect”and “Lady Soul.”
After several years at the Atlantic, Mardin moved into the pop scene, scoring a 1966 super hit with the Young Rascals’ “Good Lovin’.”
After working with Dusty Springfield on the hit “Dusty in Memphis” in 1969, Mardin was promoted as the vice president of the Atlantic.
During the next few years, he also worked alongside singer-songwriter Laura Nyro, rhythm-and-blues great Brook Benton, soul singer-songwriter Donny Hathaway, folk musician John Prine and the Average White Band, which is best known for the R&B dance song “Pick Up the Pieces.”
Mardin also composed and arranged the music for an audio recording of Khalil Gibran’s “The Prophet,” which was narrated by prominent actor Richard Harris.
In the early 1970s, Mardin worked on several albums by John Prine, who was then considered “a new Bob Dylan,” as well as Bette Midler’s debut and early records by Hall and Oates. His prominent successes with the Average White Band and the Bee Gees, who credited him with giving them the idea of employing the falsetto sound that became the group’s trademark, led to his first Producer of the Year Grammy award in 1975.
Mardin later on helped country singer Willie Nelson on an early crossover recording, “Shotgun Willie” in 1973, and reinvigorated the career of the Bee Gees with the album “Main Course” two years later.
The musician also produced hits for Chaka Khan (“I Feel for You”) and Carly Simon (“You Belong to Me”). Nevertheless, the work he is most remembered for was perhaps Phil Collins albums “Face Value” and “No Jacket Required.”
He also provided Bette Midler a resurgence in popularity with “Wind Beneath My Wings” in 1989 before working with a series of pop greats over the next decade, including Barbra Streisand on her “Higher Ground” album.
Arif Mardin retired from Atlantic Records in May 2001 and re-activated his label Manhattan Records. He always maintained close ties to the Turkish music industry.
After retiring from Atlantic, he worked for subsidiaries of EMI, including Blue Note. He later worked as a musical supervisor on television specials such as “Cinderella” featuring singer Brandy and films such as the Frankie Lymon biography “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”
Mardin was also inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 1990.
Late in his life, he produced original cast recordings of Broadway musicals, including “Rent” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” before ending his career with Quincy Jones’s “Come Away With Me” (2003), which earned him his second Producer of the Year Grammy. His final Grammy Award was for producing singer Dianne Reeves’s jazz album “A Little Moonlight,” which he won in the same year.
In total, Mardin won eleven Grammys, as well as the Recording Academy’s prestigious Trustees Award in 2001.
Personal Life
Mardin was married to his wife Latife for a total of 48 years. After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, he succumbed to the disease in 2006. In 2013, his spouse also passed away. The couple is survived by two children, Joe Mardin and Nazan Joffre Mardin.
Bibliography
Rolling Stone, “Arif Mardin, 1932-2006” – Link
The Washington Post, “Record Producer Arif Mardin” – Link
The New York Times, “Arif Mardin, Music Producer for Pop Notables, Dies at 74” – Link
Wikipedia, “Arif Mardin” – Link
Biyografi.info, “Arif Mardin” – Link