Jerry Wexler Dead at 91

THANK YOU JERRY!!!!!!!!!!! 

Jerry Wexler, who as a reporter for Billboard magazine in the late 1940s christened black popular music rhythm and blues, and who as a record producer helped lead the genre to mainstream popularity, propelling the careers of Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and other performers, died on Friday at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He was 91.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, Paul.

Wexler was already in his 30s when he entered the music business, but his impact was immediate and enduring. In 1987, the Rock and Hall of Fame recognized his contributions to American music by inducting him in only its second year of conferring such honors.

Wexler actually didn't care for rock 'n' roll, at least as it evolved in the 1960s and '70s. Though he signed Led Zeppelin and eventually produced records by the likes of Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, Dire Straits and George Michael, his main influence came in the 1950s and '60s as a vice president of Atlantic Records, working largely with black artists who were forging a new musical style, which came to be called soul music, from elements of gospel, swing and blues. STRAIGHT FROM THE AP