Singing the praises of Atlantic Records' cofounder

The great impresario of the first half of the 20th century was Sergei Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes brought human kineticism to new heights.

For Diaghilev's counterpart as the great impresario of the second half of the century, here's a vote for Ahmet Ertegun . Diaghilev gave the world Nijinsky , but Ertegun gave it a new pair of ears. As cofounder and guiding light of Atlantic Records , the single most important label in the first decades of R&B and rock 'n' roll, he helped bring human kineticism to very different, sonic, heights.

Ertegun, who died in December at 83, had a sense of style to match Diaghilev's. One of the many pleasures afforded by watching "Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built," an "American Masters" broadcast airing tonight on Channel 2, is keeping track from interview to interview of the different pocket squares peeking out of his elegantly bespoke jackets.

A fascinating, exotic figure, Ertegun is almost like someone out of a fairy tale, and that storybook quality often comes through tonight. He was the son of the Turkish ambassador to the United States and loved jazz and blues. As a seventh-grader visiting New York for the first time, he caught a cab to Harlem -- where he listened to Hot Lips Page at the Plantation Club, and then went to a rent party, where he was handed his first joint, by Sidney Bechet , no less.

In 1947, Ertegun borrowed $10,000 from his dentist so he and a partner, Herb Abrahamson , could start Atlantic. Abrahamson eventually left the company. Ertegun never did. His death was the result of a fall he took backstage at a Rolling Stones concert.

"There was nobody, I think, in the business, who knew as much as I did about what was going on," Ertegun says in the documentary. He did everything from write songs to sing backup (that's him on Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" ). Atlantic artists included Ruth Brown , Clyde McPhatter , the Coasters , and the dominant figure of its first decade, Ray Charles.

In the '60s, Atlantic continued to record great black artists, such as Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke . But Ertegun brought rock to Atlantic, too: Cream ; Led Zeppelin ; Buffalo Springfield ; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ; the Rolling Stones . He made a seamless transition from the world of indie operator to entertainment mogul.

Ertegun has a sandpapery voice and debonair presence. He easily holds his own in the many interviews, which are more in the way of conversations. "Interviewers" include Charles, Franklin, Eric Clapton , Mick Jagger , David Geffen , Phil Collins , Kid Rock , and Bette Midler .

Midler capably handles the narration, though if the price of her doing it was the five minutes or so devoted to her early days on Atlantic, subtitles would have been preferable. The time could have been better devoted to the label's great achievements in jazz, recording Charles Mingus , John Coltrane , and Ornette Coleman . In the house that Ahmet built there were indeed many mansions.

Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.