🕊#ArtIsAWeapon Peaceful journeys to the ORIGINAL #influencer, Mr. #ClarenceAvant, who transitioned yesterday, Aug. 13 at age 92. The ultimate dot-connector and deal-maker, Mr. Avant's impact and influence on Black entertainment, culture, sports, politics and activism is astounding and unmatched. His legacy will live forever. Sending my deepest condolences to his family. #TheBlackGodfather
Images 1&2 - portraits by artist @chazguest
Story via APNews.com
Clarence Avant, ‘Black Godfather’ of entertainment, and benefactor of athletes and politicians, dies
NEW YORK (AP) — Clarence Avant, the judicious manager, entrepreneur, facilitator and adviser who helped launch or guide the careers of Quincy Jones, Bill Withers and many others and came to be known as the “Black Godfather” of music and beyond, has died. He was 92.
Avant, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, according to a family statement released Monday.
Avant’s achievements were both public and behind the scenes, as a name in the credits, or a name behind the names. Born in a segregated hospital in North Carolina, he became a man of lasting and wide-ranging influence, in part by minding two pieces of advice from an early mentor, the music manager Joe Glaser: Never let on how much you know, and ask for as much money as possible, “without stuttering.”
He exemplified a certain level of cool and street smarts that allowed him to move confidently into worlds that nobody had prepared him for, never doubting he could figure it out,” former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, among the many prominent people he befriended, said in a statement. “Clarence was part of a generation that served as a bridge from a time when there was very little opportunity for Black people to a time when doors began to open. He demanded the world make room, and he paved the way for the rest of us.”
Sometimes called “The Godfather of Black Music,” he broke in as a manager in the 1950s, with such clients as singers Sarah Vaughan and Little Willie John and composer Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the theme to “Mission: Impossible.” In the 1970s he was an early patron of Black-owned radio stations and, in the 1990s, headed Motown after founder Berry Gordy Jr. sold the company.
He also started such labels as Sussex (a hybrid of two Avant passions — success and sex) and Tabu, with artists including Withers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the S.O.S Band and an obscure singer-songwriter, Sixto Rodriquez, who decades later became famous through the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugarman.” (Rodriquez died last week).
Other work took place more quietly. Avant brokered the sale of Stax Records to Gulf and Western in 1968, after being recruited by Stax executive Al Bell as a bridge between the entertainment and business industries. He raised money for Obama and Bill Clinton, helped Michael Jackson organize his first solo tour and advised Narada Michael Walden, L.A. Reid and Babyface and other younger admirers.
“Everyone in this business has been by Clarence’s desk, if they’re smart,” Quincy Jones liked to say of him.
Avant’s influence extended to sports. He helped running back Jim Brown transition from football to acting and produced a primetime television special for Muhammad Ali. When baseball great Henry Aaron was on the verge of surpassing Babe Ruth as the game’s home run champion, in 1974, Avant made sure that Aaron received the kind of lucrative commercial deals often elusive for Black athletes, starting with a personal demand to the president of Coca-Cola.
Aaron would later tell The Undefeated that everything he had become was “because of Clarence Avant.”
Avant met Jacqueline Gray, a model at the time, at an Ebony Fashion Fair in mid-1960s and married her in 1967. They had two children: Music producer-manager Alexander Devore and Nicole Avant, the former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas and, along with her husband, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, a major fundraiser for Obama. Besides his Rock Hall induction, his honors included two honorary Grammys, an NAACP Image Award and a BET entrepreneur award.
In 2021, Jacqueline Avant was murdered in their Beverly Hills home, her death mourned by Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson among others. Nicole Avant would credit her mother, who became a prominent philanthropist, with bringing to Clarence Avant and other family members “the love and passion and importance of the arts and culture and entertainment.”
Born in 1931, Clarence Avant spent his early years in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of eight children raised by a single mother, and he dropped out of high school to move north. A friend from North Carolina helped him find work managing a lounge in Newark, New Jersey, and he soon got to know Glaser, whose clients ranged from Louis Armstrong to Barbra Streisand, not to mention Al Capone. Through Glaser, Avant found himself in places where Black people rarely had been permitted.
“Mr. Glaser would have me go with him to these dog shows,” Avant told Variety in 2016. “And you’ve got to imagine I was the only Black person at the goddamn dog show. He also had these 16 seats behind the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium, and whenever he’d take me I would try to walk to the back row, and he’d grab me and say, ‘Goddamn it, sit your ass up here with me.’”
Avant became especially close to Jones, their bond formed through a missed record deal. It was the early 1960s, and Jones was a vice president at Mercury Records, one of the industry’s few Black executives. Avant was representing jazz musician Jimmy Smith and had heard that Mercury recently signed Dizzy Gillespie for $100,000. For Smith, Avant aimed much higher, closer to half a million.
“Are you smoking Kool-Aid?” Jones would remember saying to Avant, who then negotiated with Verve Records.
“He went and got the deal,” Jones, whose collaborations with Avant would include the TV series “Heart and Soul” and the feature film “Stalingrad,” told Billboard in 2006. “I respected him for that.”
As he rose in the entertainment industry, Avant became more active politically. He was an early supporter of Tom Bradley, the first Black mayor of Los Angeles, and served as executive producer of “Save the Children,” a 1973 documentary about a concert fundraiser for the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “Operation PUSH.” Three years earlier, when he learned that the civil rights leader Andrew Young was running for Congress, in Georgia, he gave him a call.“He said, ‘In Georgia, you’re running for Congress?’” Young later told CNN. “He said, ‘Well, if you’re crazy enough to run, I’m crazy enough to help you.’”
Avant, whom Young had never met, offered to bring in Isaac Hayes and other entertainers for a benefit and arrange for it to be held at the baseball stadium in Atlanta.
Young had forgotten about their conversation when, a month later, signs promoting the show appeared around town.
“We had about 30,000 people in the pouring down rain,” Young said. “And he never sent us a bill.”
Clarence Avant, the manager, entrepreneur, facilitator and adviser who helped launch or guide the careers of Quincy Jones, Bill Withers and
Trailer - Netflix documentary "The Black Godfather"
Story via @npr: One of the great connectors in the music and entertainment industries has died. The executive and businessman Clarence Avant boosted the careers of generations of musicians, entertainers, sports stars and politicians.
A family statement sent to NPR said that he had died "gently at home in Los Angeles" on Sunday at age 92. A cause of death was not shared.
Avant was a giant power broker in several fields, helping to nurture the careers of major Black artists and shaping the field for Black-owned companies. Among his many accomplishments: He signed singer-songwriter Bill Withers. He was the promoter for Michael Jackson's first solo tour. He was the chairman of Motown Records. He nurtured producers, including Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Diddy — and also worked with sports heroes including Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali. He also became a major behind-the-scenes force in politics...
Avant was born Feb. 25, 1931, in Greensboro, N.C. As a young man, he started out by managing a range of musicians, including blues singer Little Willie John, film music composer Lalo Schifrin, jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan and jazz organist Jimmy Smith.
Netflix — where Avant's son-in-law, Ted Sarandos, is co-CEO — created a documentary about Avant in 2019. The film's title carried Avant's longtime nickname: The Black Godfather. In the documentary, former President Obama observed: "Clarence was the bridge from the time where there was no opportunity [for Black talent] to a time where where doors began to open."
Avant was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Read more: www.npr.org/2023/08/14/1193720263/clarence-avant
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