He was a record executive who headed the Blue Note label for 25 years. It had been an important jazz label for decades, but had been dormant for several years when he revived it under the umbrella of EMI Records in 1984.
He served in the Army in the early years of the Cold War, doing counterintelligence work in Germany.
He served as chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America and chairman of the Country Music Association.
His father was a mechanical engineer. His mother came from a family of amateur musicians.
As a teenager, he collected jazz records and frequented the jazz clubs on 52nd Street in Manhattan. As a student at Bucknell University, he wrote about jazz in the school newspaper and hosted a weekly radio show.