Clarence Avant

Clarence Avant was an American music executive and film producer who worked behind the scenes for Black artists across several decades. Born in Climax, North Carolina, he moved to New Jersey as a teenager and started in the music business in the 1950s managing Teddy P's Lounge in Newark, with the manager Joe Glaser as a mentor. He went on to handle Little Willie John, Sarah Vaughan and Jimmy Smith, and in 1962 formed Avant Garde Enterprises. His Sussex Records, founded in 1969, signed Bill Withers, and through Venture Records he helped arrange a joint venture linking a major label with an African American artist. He bought Los Angeles's first African American owned FM station and helped sell Stax Records to Gulf+Western. His honors included the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Ahmet Ertegun award in 2021, and Sussex Records figures in the documentary Searching for Sugar Man (2012).