jErry wExLEr

1917–2008

Soul Instinct

text John Kruth

photography Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

The legendary Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler, whose passion, aesthetic, and instinct helped define the genres of R&B and soul, passed away on August 15 at his Sarasota, Florida, home. He was ninety-one.

“Jerry was a cool guy, a special guy,” says Ralph MacDonald, the master percussionist who played hundreds of sessions for Atlantic. “He had a thing about him where he could really see someone’s raw talent and bring it to the front. It was about what was right for the artist. He had a lot of creativity. Jerry just knew who to put together. I like to think of him in terms of a master chef. He always knew what ingredients to put in.”

Born the son of a Polish immigrant window-washer on January 10, 1917, in New York City, Gerald Wexler began his musical career in the late ’40s (after two years in college, a stint in the army, and returning to graduate from Kansas State). As an aspiring journalist at Billboard, he was credited with inventing the term “rhythm and blues” in lieu of the tired old segregationist handle “race music.” Joining Atlantic Records in 1953, after the departure of Ahmet Ertegun’s original partner, Herb Abramson, Wexler, with his passion for music and aggressive salesmanship, helped transform the label from a struggling independent to the beacon of R&B and jazz— releasing hit records by Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, the Drifters, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis, Solomon Burke, and Sam & Dave.

Along with the brilliant engineer Tom Dowd and the gifted string-arranger Arif Mardin, Wexler headed what became known as Atlantic’s “three-headed monster” production team. “Each of them had qualities the other didn’t have, which contributed a lot to the artists that they worked with,” says Michael Cuscuna, a producer at Atlantic from 1973 to 1974. “Jerry was an amalgam of personality traits. He was a real tough New York Jewish kid who was an incredibly literate, well-read man. In the ’60s, while Ahmet focused more on pop and British rock, Jerry kept the original intent of Atlantic alive, signing and recording most of the R&B acts on the label. He was very good at developing different rhythm sections and production teams from Memphis and Muscle Shoals to Miami.”

Wexler was the motivating force in Atlantic’s foray into Southern soul, arranging a deal to manufacture and distribute Stax Records. He also took advantage of their seasoned producers and songwriters, and rich pool of musicians, sending Sam & Dave and Wilson Pickett to the Memphis studio to record. In 1967, Jerry signed Aretha Franklin, ultimately cutting fourteen albums with the Queen of Soul. Instead of using Stax, Wexler sought new sounds in Alabama, where he worked closely with the Muscle Shoals session players, who backed Aretha on her first Atlantic release. By urging “Aretha to be Aretha,” as he recalled in his 1993 memoir, Rhythm and the Blues, Wexler coaxed a string of smash hits from her that included “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and “I Never Loved a Man.”

“Jerry was something of a mystery to me,” says Atlantic recording engineer Gene Paul. “I’m not sure exactly what he did. He was almost like a guide to the museum.” Paul recalls a particularly enlightening moment in the studio with Wexler during the 1970–’71 Young, Gifted and Black sessions: “When we were cutting Aretha, one of Bernard Purdie’s mics fell. After the song ended, I ran into the studio to fix it. Wexler said, ‘Forget it. That was the take! You’ll never get this again.’ The mic had fallen in the middle of the song, but it was Rembrandt. Jerry could smell it when it happened.”

In 1975, Jerry stepped down as vice president of Atlantic (which by that time had been bought by Warner Brothers), but continued to produce. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. At the memorial for Arif Mardin on March 6, 2007, fellow Atlantic producer Joel Dorn (who died suddenly last December) noted that “the herd is getting thin.” Indeed. .