In the late 1950s, Sinatra tried to buy Verve Records, which had taken over Clef. Before long, Ostin - who changed his last name because people seemed to stumble on Ostrofsky - was the company’s controller. Grankz’s brother, Norman, owned Clef Records, whose stable of jazz stars included Charlie Parker, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. So we trusted him and it paid off - in spades.”Ī childhood neighbor, Irving Grankz, led him in the direction of music.

“But the best thing about him was that he seemed honest. “Unlike other executives we talked to, Mo seemed genuinely interested in our music,” Mike Mills, the former bass player with R.E.M., told The Times. and walked away, only to team up a year later with former rival David Geffen at DreamWorks and return as a dominant figure in the recording industry. From Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix to Prince, Ostin coaxed a wide variety of musicians to the label, and then gave them the elbow room they needed to be creative.īut in the late 1990s, when downloads replaced actual records and piracy cut into industry margins, Ostin chafed under the growing corporate culture at Warner Bros. The cause of death was age-related.ĭuring his 31-year career at Warner Bros., Ostin advocated for changes that would help the then-small record label challenge and ultimately outpace industry leaders during the ’60s and ’70s, an era of adventuresome and varying musical styles. His death was confirmed by multiple sources close to the executive. Records into one of the most admired music labels in the world and who earned respect and lasting allegiance from musicians from Los Angeles to London for his artist-friendly philosophy, died on Sunday. Mo Ostin, the music executive who helped transform Warner Bros.

Young sinatra 1