Continued: Final Notes

Record Producer Jerry Wexler
Dead at 91

by Leslie Johnson

Jerry Wexler, a record producer with an amazing ability to spot talent, died Aug. 15 of congestive heart failure at his home in Sarasota, Fla., at the age of 91.

Wexler was especially well known for his stint in the 1950s-'60s when he was a vice-president at Atlantic Records, working with black musicians such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett as they developed a new musical style called soul. It was Wexler who had previously dubbed black popular music rhythm and blues, and it was he who made that music accessible and popular with the mainstream public. He later produced recordings by artists who became rock legends -- Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and Dire Straits among them.

Though he is often associated only with rhythm and blues, soul music and rock n' roll (he was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987), Wexler was knowledgeable and interested in early jazz, perhaps because of his affinity for black music in general. He was a long-time subscriber to The Mississippi Rag, careful to call or write when he moved to and from his residences in Florida and New York. He was an early consultant when Jelly's Last Jam was being developed for Broadway. He wanted the music for the show to be authentic and called on top trad musicians for input. Unfortunately, his original vision did not prevail, and the show went on with a seriously compromised approach to Jelly Roll Morton's music.

Wexler recounted one of his other early jazz projects in his autobiography, Rhythm and the Blues, A Life in American Music, recalling a show directed and starring Vernel Bagneris that originated in New Orleans in the late 1970s and moved to New York with the original cast and musical staff, which included New Orleans stalwarts Orange Kellin and Lars Edegran.

As Wexler stated, "I co-produced a musical One Mo' Time, An Evening of 1920s Black Vaudeville with Village Gate owners Art and Burt D'Lugoff. Another labor of New Orleans love, the show featured legendary trumpeter Jabbo Smith and replicated a typical 1933 bill of the famed Lyric Theater in the French Quarter with echoes of Jelly Roll and Bessie Smith. The show enjoyed a four-year run at the Gate and road companies took it all over the U.S. and Europe."

Wexler's involvement in the show ultimately resulted in a fine original cast recording. It's also worth noting that Wexler's New Orleans soundtrack for Louis Malle's movie Pretty Baby, set in early New Orleans, won an Academy Award nomination.

September 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

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