Wexler, Jerry, 1917-2008

Jerry Wexler (1917- ) was born in New York City. He was a partner with Ahmet Ertegun in Atlantic Records, an independent record label specializing in rhythm and blues, a term Wexler coined while a report for Billboard Magazine. With Atlantic, Stax, and other labels, Wexler created a greatly influential corpus of classic rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and soul music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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.

Jerry Wexler was born 10 January 1917 in New York City and grew up in Washington Heights. Early on, he gravitated towards sports and jazz music. Wexler graduated from high school at age 15 and enrolled at Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science where he obtained a degree in journalism. He served in the United States Army and was stationed in Florida and Texas. After the Army and a job with BMI, he was hired as a reporter for Billboard Magazine . At Billboard, Wexler suggested rhythm and blues as a name change for race records,   Billboard 's rubric for black music.

Attending jazz clubs and postwar jam sessions, Wexler met Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, founders of Atlantic Records, an independent record label specializing in rhythm and blues. When Abramson went into the Army, Wexler joined Atlantic as a partner.

During different periods of his career Wexler had two main co-producers, Ahmet Ertegun and Barry Beckett, a southern piano player. In the 1950s, Wexler produced or co-produced recordings by LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, the Drifters, and Big Joe Turner. During the 1960s, Wexler relocated much of his production work from New York City to Stax in Memphis, Tenn., and Fame in Muscle Shoals, Ala. He produced or co-produced artists including Solomon Burke, Cher, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and Dusty Springfield. Wexler and Franklin worked together into the 1970s, and it was during Franklin's stay at Atlantic that she recorded the body of work for which she is best known.

In 1975, Wexler resigned from Atlantic, but continued producing records in Miami at Criteria Studios, where he had set up Atlantic South. In the 1970s and 1980s, Wexler worked with a number of significant artists including Dr. John, Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and Carlos Santana. He also produced the musical One Mo' Time, the original cast recording of The Wiz, and the motion picture soundtracks to Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling and Pretty Baby . His soundtrack for Pretty Baby received an Academy Award nomination in 1979. As a record producer, Jerry Wexler helped create a greatly influential corpus of classic rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and soul music. Wexler was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He and David Ritz wrote Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music (Knopf, 1993).