Clarence Avant, record executive known as the 'Godfather of Black Music,' dies at age 92

August 14, 2023 / 1:55 PMClarence 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, his family confirmed to CBS News on Monday. He was 92.

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.

"Everyone in this business has been by Clarence's desk, if they're smart," Quincy Jones liked to say of him. 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.

"Are you smoking Kool-Aid?" Jones would remember saying to Avant, who then negotiated with Verve Records.

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