Washington - Jerry Wexler, the record producer who made
performers such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin famous, died at
91, news reports said Saturday.
Wexler died of congestive heart failure Friday at his home in
Sarasota, Florida, the New York Times reported.
In the 1950s and 1960s he worked largely with black artists who
were developing a new style, which later came to be known as soul
music.
'He played a major role in bringing black music to the masses, and
in the evolution of rhythm and blues to soul music,' the report
quoted Jim Henke, vice president and chief curator for the Hall of
Fame, as saying.
'Wexler was cutting records as if they were short stories,'
Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson told the online magazine
Salon in 2000. 'He brought a depth of literature to a music that was
basically treated as if it was primitive.'
He also produced records for Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Carlos
Santana, Dire Straits and George Michael.
A native New Yorker, Gerald 'Jerry' Wexler was born on January 10,
1917, to Jewish immigrants Harry and Elsa Spitz Wexler. He was the
eldest of two sons and grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
Left to describe himself, he wrote in his 1993 autobiography
Rhythm and the Blues: 'I was simmered in a slow-cooking gumbo of New
Orleans jazz, small Harlem combos, big bands, Western swing, country,
jukebox race music, pop schmaltz.
USA
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