RIP Jerry Wexler

[cryptique]

obit on Yahoo

 

Jerry Wexler, famed record producer, dies at 91

 

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer

 

NEW YORK - Legendary record producer Jerry Wexler, who helped shape R&B music with influential recordings of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other greats, and later made key recordings with the likes of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, has died, said his son, Paul.

 

Paul Wexler said his father died at a hospice in Sarasota, Fla., about 3:45 a.m. Friday of congenital heart disease; the death was first confirmed to The Associated Press by David Ritz, co-author of Wexler's 1993 memoir, "Rhythm and the Blues."

 

Both his son and daughter Lisa were present at the time of his death. Paul Wexler told the AP his father's death was "a tremendous loss."

 

"The number of artists that he was involved with and helped significantly or just made great records with, the list is almost unbelievable," Paul Wexler added. "And many of them are gone now."

 

Wexler earned his reputation as a music industry giant while a partner at Atlantic Records with another legendary music figure, the late Ahmet Ertegun. Atlantic provided an outlet for the groundbreaking work of African-American performers in the 1950s and 1960s. Later, it was a home to rock icons like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. He later helped Dylan win his first Grammy by producing his 1979 "Slow Train Coming" album.

 

Wexler helped boost the careers of both the "King of Soul," Charles, and the "Queen of Soul," Franklin. Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge were among the other R&B greats who benefited from Wexler's deft recording touch. He also produced Dusty Springfield's classic "Dusty in Memphis," considered a masterpiece of "blue-eyed" soul.

 

Burke said Wexler was the ultimate music man.

 

"He loved black music, R&B music and rhythm and blues was his foundation. He had a feeling for it, he had the knack to keep it going in his heart and recognize the talent that he felt was real," Burke told the AP after learning of his death. "Jerry Wexler didn't change the sound of America, he put the sound to the public. He open the doors and windows to the radio stations ... and made everybody listen."

 

Among the standards produced by Wexler: Franklin's "Respect," a dazzling, feminist reworking of an Otis Redding song; Sledge's deep ballad "When A Man Loves A Woman" and Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour," with a horn vamp inspired by Wexler's admittedly rhythmless dancing.

 

Wexler was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

 

"No one really knew how to make a record when I started," he said in a profile on the rock hall's Web site. "You simply went into the studio, turned on the mike and said, `Play.'"

 

In the studio, Wexler was a hands-on producer. Once, during a session with Charles, the tambourine player was off the beat. Wexler, in his award-winning autobiography, recalled grabbing the instrument and playing it himself.

 

"Who's that?" asked Charles.

 

"Me," Wexler told the blind singer.

 

"You got it, baby!" Charles said.

 

The son of Polish immigrants and a music buff since his teens, Wexler landed a job writing for Billboard magazine in the late 1940s after serving in World War II and studying journalism in college. There he coined the term "rhythm and blues" for the magazine's black music charts; previously, they were listed under "race records."

 

While working at Billboard, Wexler befriended Ertegun

[ms. yvon]

 

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT WORK, JERRY!

[Central Scrutinizer]

I don't think he's overreaching either. Sad day.

[renic]

truly a bummer. but thankful he was around.

[LouieB]

I had not heard this. Sad indeed. Jerry did it all.

 

LouieB