He changed the face of pop music

Even if you didn’t know a thing about Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died in December at 83, you’d instantly glean his monumental significance in the history of popular music from the footage of him in PBS’ latest “American Masters” documentary. We see him laughing and swapping anecdotes with such rock, R&B; and jazz titans as Mick Jagger, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Wynton Marsalis.

“Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built,” cogently written, produced and directed by Susan Steinberg, takes the “American Masters” characteristic thoroughness and respect toward its subject. Over the course of two hours, it recapitulates the extraordinary life of the man born as the son of Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, a kid so taken with the sound and vibrancy of black American music that he spent his life recording and selling it to the world.

Longtime Atlantic artist Bette Midler narrates the salient points -- his early life of privilege as the son of a diplomat to the dream-come-true nature of his father’s relocation to Washington, D.C. It rolls through his uncanny success as a record man whose empire -- aided by partner Herb Abramson -- anticipated and helped usher in the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and nurtured it to unimagined heights.

Atlantic got off the ground in the late-’40s as an R&B; label, launched through the hits of Ruth Brown, the sassy singer so crucial to the company’s early success that it was long known as “the house that Ruth built.”

The show moves chronologically through an impossibly rich history encompassing the discovery of Ray Charles, the label’s branching out into ‘50s rock with the signing of Bobby Darin, the first independent production deal with songwriter-producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the blossoming of Aretha Franklin under Ertegun and his label partner and fellow producer Jerry Wexler, and Atlantic’s life-saving move in the ‘60s into British rock with the music of Cream and Led Zeppelin. It also touches on the role played by his older brother, Nesuhi, a jazz fan who oversaw Atlantic’s branching out into that genre when he came aboard in the mid-’50s.

Along with all the pop music history, the show tastefully explores the private side of this legendary sophisticate in touching home movies of his childhood and in recent interviews with his wife, Mica, who forthrightly addresses how their marriage survived his lifelong jet-setting. At one point, Ertegun is asked point-blank about all the women and drugs that surrounded him for so long, a question he sidesteps with a quip.

And it briefly elucidates Ertegun and Atlantic’s response in the ‘80s to charges by dozens of veteran R&B; artists that they were shortchanged on royalties for decades, resulting in a payout that included a $2-million donation used to create the Rhythm and Blues Foundation to aid struggling musicians late in life.

There’s frequently a feeling of getting just the CNN headline scroll on so many stories that could support their own documentaries. And the one false note is the opening testimonial to Ertegun’s legacy from Kid Rock -- Kid Rock!! -- in a clumsy attempt to bring Ertegun’s legacy appear up to the minute.

Still, the show largely leaves you wanting more, much like the music of the cornerstone artists that Ertegun and his record label championed for nearly 60 years.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

*

‘American Masters: Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built’

Where: KCET

When: 9 to 11 tonight