There are precious few producers or record executives who are as important as the artists they work with, but Jerry Wexler, who died today at 91, was one of them. Besides helping turn Atlantic into one of the greatest independent labels ever, shepherding the careers of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and countless others, his first great contribution to American music came during his stint as a Billboard editor in the late 40s, when he coined the term "rhythm and blues". Before Wexler, R&B had been called "race" music, a term as ghettoizing in its way as any Jim Crow law. It may seem a minor thing, but that change in terminology in pop music's leading trade magazine served as a major step in the removal of racism from the American music industry.