Jerry Moss, Co-Founder of A&M Records, Dies at 88
variety.comChris Morris Music ReporterJerry Moss, who turned A&M Records into one of America’s leading independent record labels with his business partner Herb Alpert, died Wednesday in Los Angeles.
He was 88.“They truly don’t make them like him anymore and we will miss conversations with him about everything under the sun.
The twinkle in his eyes as he approached every moment ready for the next adventure,” his family said in a statement to the Associated Press.A&M rose to prominence during the 1960s behind huge pop hits by trumpeter Alpert’s band the Tijuana Brass, whose worldwide sales are estimated in excess of 70 million albums.After entering the rock business at Moss’ insistence in the late ’60s, the label witnessed booming sales during the ’70s and ’80s with such talent as Supertramp, Peter Frampton, the Police, the Go-Go’s, Bryan Adams and Janet Jackson.
Following the sale of A&M to Polygram in 1989, Moss and Alpert founded a new imprint, Almo Sounds, which developed such acts as Garbage and Ozomatli.Moss and Alpert were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as non-performers in 2006.Born in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn College, Moss entered the record business after a chance meeting at a wedding with Coed Records partner Marvin Cane led to a job doing radio promotion for the label.
Read more on variety.com