Arif Mardin, the Turkish-American record producer whose work shaped decades of popular music, died of pancreatic cancer in New York in June 2006. He was 74. His family announced his passing from Istanbul, and said he would be laid to rest in that city the following week.
Born in Istanbul in 1932, Mardin studied economics at Istanbul University and the London School of Economics. His path toward music changed after he attended a 1956 Istanbul concert featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones. Jones was so taken with Mardin's compositions that Mardin became the inaugural recipient of the Quincy Jones Scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston, enrolling in 1958. He graduated in 1961 and later relocated to New York.
Mardin launched his professional career in 1963 at Atlantic Records, the label co-founded by Nasuhi and Ahmet Ertegun. Over the following decades he worked with Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Phil Collins, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie and many others. After leaving Atlantic in 2001, he joined EMI's Manhattan Records, where he helped develop Norah Jones.
His career produced roughly 60 gold and platinum albums. He received 12 Grammy Awards, including best producer honors in 1976 and 2003, and earned 15 additional Grammy nominations.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.