Music to his ears.

Music to his ears

Instead of reading the paper when he gets to work early in the morning, Albert Cafaro plays cassettes on the stereo in his office.

"I can play really loud. It doesn't bother anybody," he said.

It shouldn't. Forty-one-year-old Cafaro has helped to launch recording artists such as The Police, Supertramp and Joe Jackson. In June he became the senior vice president and general manager of Hollywood-based A&M Records and "was responsible for everything that goes on at the label in one form or another," from both the artistic and financial standpoints.

And last week, after a 13-year climb up the corporate ladder, Cafaro was promoted to president of the company.

Before, Cafaro was solely an internal A&M man. Now he is the company's representative to the outside world as well. In addition, as senior vice president and general manager, Cafaro always had someone to turn to - chairman and chief executive officer Jerry Moss, who was also president. Now Moss has relinquished much of his activity in the company to Cafaro.

"I am now responsible for the overall success and performance of the label, with the commensurate authority to determine that success," he said.

Cafaro is only the second president to be appointed by founders Moss and Alpert in the company's 25-year history. His predecessor, Gil Friesen, vacated the post in 1989.

Cafaro is self-assured, easy-going, talkative. Heavyset, with a beard and glasses, he found no reason to wear a tie for the interview, dressed in a casual sportshirt and pants. He also said a relaxed attitude helps him deal with showbiz people. "I've always found that just being natural with people is the best way," he said.

"If you treat a star like a star, they act like a star. If you just treat

them as another person and allow them their humanity and come to them with your own, then you have a pleasant conversation."

A&M Records was founded in 1965 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. The company's first recording was "The Lonely Bull" by Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The album was recorded in Alpert's garage. Since then, the list of artists who have recorded with the label seems endless and includes Joe Cocker, Janet Jackson, The Carpenters, Cat Stevens and Styx.

The company was owned by Alpert and Moss until it was bought by London-based Polygram International for $500 million in 1989. Moss stayed on as chairman of the company, and Alpert continued as vice chairman.

Cafaro has had a lifelong interest in music. He sang and played the bass in a rock 'n' roll band during high school. "We sang the best three-part harmonies in North Jersey," he said.

As a kid his idols were The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, The Byrds and Bob Dylan. "The Byrds made an enormous impression on me," he said.

"I grew up in the New York area so I had an opportunity to see bands early on," he said, singling out Bob Dylan's acoustic shows as an example.

In his youth, Cafaro worked as a disc jockey at a series of radio stations in the South, describing the pay as "hand to mouth."

"A radio station is a nice situation because I didn't have to be in a corporate environment and I still had the opportunity to be creative," he said.

In the early 1970s, he became general manager and a morning disc jockey at WRPL, a progressive-music AM station in North Carolina.

A lot of music labels promoted their albums at the station and "it was there that I became familiar with record companies," he said.

"I was firmly oriented in a background of music and appreciated it and enjoyed it, so when I was in this radio environment it was like having the keys to a candy store."

In 1977, at the age of 28, Cafaro found himself as the local promotions representative for A&M Records in North and South Carolina. He said he found the job "very rewarding, challenging and fulfilling."

He worked his way up to positions in Philadelphia, "a very progressive market," and New York. Cafaro then became vice president of promotions, a position with a national scope.

"I was in charge with front-line responsibility of promoting radio day in and day out, and I had an opportunity to learn what ultimately would allow me to become general manager of the label," he said.

Eventually Cafaro became senior vice president of A&M, and was promoted to general manager last June, only to now find himself president of the company. "My job puts me in the middle of everything we do," he said.

Cafaro was quick to say that the hardest part of his job is "telling an artist that a record's not happening. Really knowing that you're right."

He takes his decision-making power very seriously. "You have to be forthright and honest about your dealings and realize that we have people's lives, their creative lives and, in some cases, their financial liives, in our hands," he said.

Cafaro pointed out that picking new bands can be difficult. "Often the biggest stars, the biggest bands are ones that are so different in their early development that you can miss them," he said.

Cafaro said his own musical taste hasn't changed or grown more conservative with age. His own favorite bands at the time of the interview included The Pretenders, Dire Straits, Motley Crue and Extreme, a band he is presently "breaking in." However, his favorite groups "are subject to change at a moment's notice."

While he is driving, Cafaro listens to cassettes, compact discs and the radio. Cassettes are for listening to new groups, compact discs are for listening to favorites like "Blue Sky" by the Allman Brothers, and the radio is for listening to the competition, he said.

"When you're listening to the radio, you're evaluating, you're challenging, you're judging yourself to come up with ways that you can be successful," he said.

He is fond of attending rock concerts, as well. "I enjoy just closing my eyes and listening to it. Every now and then I open my eyes and I see some 14-year-old kid next to me, and I laugh at myself."

Cafaro's goals as president are "to reach as many people as possible with the music of A&M artists, to break new acts and to participate in the fulfillment of the employees that work for me."