Jerry Wexler, who exchanged a career in music journalism for one in music, producing the likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, has died at the age of 91.

Wexler's son, Paul Wexler, told the Associated Press that his father had died early Friday morning (8/15) at a hospice in Sarasota, FL. Both his son and his daughter, Lisa, were present at the time of Wexler's passing, according to the AP.

Wexler, born in New York City during the first World War, got his start in music in 1947, when he took a job at performance-rights organization BMI, and soon after, industry staple Billboard, where he coined the term "rhythm and blues" to define the genre of music that had previously been known as "race records" in Billboard's sales tracking charts.

In 1951, Wexler jumped to MGM Records' publishing arm, The Big Three, and two years later to Atlantic Records, where he was made a partner after co-founder Herb Abramson joined the Army. At Atlantic, Wexler worked with another legendary figure, Ahmet Ertegun, and helped launch the careers of a generation of R&B artists who defined the "Atlantic sound" of the '50s and '60s, including Charles, Franklin, Wilson Pickett and others.

"He loved black music, R&B music and rhythm and blues was his foundation. He had a feeling for it, he had the knack to keep it going in his heart and recognize the talent that he felt was real," singer Solomon Burke told the AP. "Jerry Wexler didn't change the sound of America, he put the sound to the public. He opened the doors and windows to the radio stations ... and made everybody listen."

Among the hits Wexler supervised during the '60s were Franklin's "Respect," Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour."

Wexler later helped sign Led Zeppelin and The J. Geils Band, among others, to Atlantic contracts, but spent more time on the production side of the business as time wore on, producing Southern musicians-- including the likes of Duane Allman, Willie Nelson and Dr. John--in the '70s, and later working with Dire Straits, Carlos Santana and George Michael in the 1980s.

He left Atlantic in 1975, eventually taking a position as vice president of A&R for Warner Bros. Records in 1977, where he helped sign the B-52's, Dire Straits and Gang Of Four, according to his autobiography.

Wexler was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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