Clarence Avant, 'Black Godfather' of entertainment and beyond, dies at 92

NEW YORK -- 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.

"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.

by signing up you agree to our terms of service He also started such labels as Sussex 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."

Avant's influence extended to sports. He helped running back Jim Brown transition from football to acting and produced a prime-time 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.

"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 ... . 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.'"

"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."

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