RIP Jerry Wexler

RIP

RIP. My university library has his vinyl collection in special collections: my guess is he dumped it when the cd era began (he's an alum of the university). It's ridiculously rich as you can imagine. What a huge figure for music.

Also:
http://www.geocities.com/servesomebody2001/Pictures/1979-SlowTrainComing.jpg

:(

http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/Tips/SahmDDougSahmband.jpg

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/f/frankl_aret_spiritint_101b.jpg

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieWzyUQhjvZBOyZ9lriv0ZvRsvDAD92IQV600

91 years old.

So he substituted the term "rhythm and blues" for 'race records' in Billboard.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/DustyInMemphis.jpg

Sadness

Blimey. RIP.

RIP. His autiobio is pretty great. Has that "ghostwritten by David Ritz" "jazzy" quality which annoys, but the stories are amazing.

When Atlantic sold to Warner/7arts in 1967, Ahmet, Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin more or less moved shop to Miami, and setup shop at Criteria Studios (they called it Atlantic South, despite having no ownership in it). The top engineers at Criteria were Ron and Howard Albert.

Creem/Eric Clapton recorded Derek and the Dominos there, and advised Bee Gees to give Criteria a shot, which led to Barry Gibb discovereing the private discotheque Honey for the Bears around 1974. The DJ there was Bo Crane. (The Eagles followed shortly after)

Bee Gees came out of their slump shortly after when they recorded Jive Talkin' at Criteria (reportedly called Drive Talkin' initially, as they used to drive over the causeway to the studio and the bumps created the rhythm in Barry's head).

Once Atlantic came to Miami, TK used them for distribution (although TK decided to go it alone for a long time after Timmy Thomas's Why Can't We Live Together hit). Of course, then George McCrae's Rock Your baby hit huge, followed by KC & the Sunshine Band. Henry Stone and Steve Alaimo were top dogs at TK.

Supposedly, around 1978, Criteria and TK held a collective 7 out of 10 tracks on the top 10 charts. Keep in mind Saturday Night Fever.

In 1979, Wall Street Journal and 60 minutes both launched stories about the death of Disco and the recession of the music industry. Atlantic decided to no longer use Criteria. TK's loan was called in by Flagship bank. The Bee Gees tried to sue

By 1980, it was all over.

Atlantic, of course, was part of WEA by then, and they continued success on a budget.

Ron & Howard Albert, along with Steve Alaimo decided to retire and go deep sea fishing.

Henry Stone called up Morris Levy for a bailout. Roulette Records took the TK catalog, and Morris funded Henry's new label (Sunnyview Records).

Alaimo and the Albert brothers came out of retirement to sort of pick up where Criteria and TK left off by creating Vision Records, banking on Betty Wright and Stephen Stills. Instead, they found success with Miami Bass ala Clay D and Magic Mike.

Morris Levy finally got busted for racketeering and left the country in 1986 (the TK catalog went to Rhino).

This freed up Henry, who began Hot Productions on his own (with new partner Paul Klein). The immediately got into Florida rap music/Miami Bass and hit with Gucci Crew before finding L'trimm.

Hot decided to take projects right back to Wexler at Atlantic for distribution, which is why most of us know Cars that Go Boom. Atlantic was very familiar with the Miami sound, leading to distribution deals for other Miami-esque songs too (Supersonic, Kyper's Tic Tac Toe, etc.)

The DJ there was Bo Crane.

Oh, and Bo Crane started Miami Bass label Pandisc records.

From his Salon interview:

"I'm so damn atheistic that I know there will be nothing to enjoy afterwards. Even if you've made an impact on world culture, you're gone, baby."

Rest in goneness, and thanks for everything.

Great sentiment indeed from him -- hell of a legacy. RIP.

Rest in peace.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/arts/music/16wexler.html?hp

i figured this was coming, but sad news nonetheless. i hope it's not hyperbole to call him an american hero.

To be fair, he wasn't nearly as loved as Ahmet...but his track record remains.

:((

another old school great gone...

RIP.

“I asked him once,” said Mr. Thurman, the filmmaker, “ ‘What do you want written on your tombstone, Jerry?’ He said, ‘Two words: More bass.’ ”

^^^^ all the way. I hope he gets his wish. RIP

R.I.P.

yeah, well, but what a fucking bastard. I am sure Jim Stewart, who admittedly was too dumb to realize Wexler was fuckin' him out of Stax, has some ambivalent feelings about Wex. Salutary not to forget that amidst all the wonderment at Wexler's aesthetic contributions, you know? R.I.P.

The NY Times piece hinted at this:

“He was a bundle of contradictions,” said Tom Thurman, who produced and directed a documentary about Mr. Wexler in 2000. “He was incredibly abrasive and incredibly generous, very abrupt and very, very patient, seemingly a pure, sharklike businessman and also a cerebral and creative genius.”

Most interviewees I've had are not the most complimenting of him, but aren't completely dismissive either.

There is an interesting related discussion of a record mogul with a much worse reputation in this review of an Ahmet bio by Christgau. No, I'm not talking about Ahmet, even though he did buy a song off Doc Pomus and put his name on it, among other things.

Then there's the story about when Lieber and Stoller audited Atlantic and demanded some monies they were owed and were told- "fine we'll give you the money but you'll never work with our artists again." They started their own label and made records that they thought should have been hits but their new partner was not getting them distributed, he was running up a big tab at the track and Mike and Jerry L ended up selling out to him for a dollar just to get away, ending up not quite nostalgic for the Atlantic days, but at least somewhat appreciative for what the organization had given them.

Anyway, I hated on Jerry for a while about the Stax business, but I read his bio in which he apologized for it, for what that's worth, and read what he said about his artists, his dad and especially his daughter and I kind of warmed up to him again. But maybe it was really just the story of how he threw Crosby, Stills and Nash (and David Geffen, I think) out of his office.

Of course Ahmet later patched things up with Geffen. But Tom Dowd tells a story of being at some nightclub in L.A. and Ahmet wanting to the party to continue and making a phone call: "Cher? This is Ahmet I'm here with Tom and Bette and somebody else, and we'll be coming over in a little bit." When they got there Cher greeted them with champagne flutes but Geffen with was sitting there in a corner in shorts and sneakers and Ahmet said to Tommy "How can he dress like that?"