Wexler, Jerry.

Jerry Wexler grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, the oldest son of a Polish immigrant father and a German Jewish mother. As a teenager Wexler developed a taste for jazz music. When he enrolled at Kansas State University in 1936, he discovered southern music and the blues. Wexler began his career as a journalist for Billboard Magazine, where he is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a substitute for the more prevalent term of the day, "race music." As an artists and repertoire (A & R) man with Atlantic Records, Wexler became an important influence in the development of American soul music, bringing artists such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett to the attention of mainstream audiences.