Man Who Marketed Black Music to the Masses Is Dead at 91.
Jerry Wexler was the ultimate music man.

"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," Solomon Burke said after learning of his death. "Jerry Wexler didn't change the sound of America, he put the sound to the public. He open the doors and windows to the radio stations ... and made everybody listen."
Wexler earned his reputation as a music industry giant while a partner at Atlantic Records with another legendary music figure, the late Ahmet Ertegun. Atlantic provided an outlet for the groundbreaking work of African-American performers in the 1950s and '60s.

Wexler helped boost the careers of both the "King of Soul," Ray Charles, and the "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin. Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge were among the other R&B greats who benefited from Wexler's deft recording touch. Among the standards produced by Wexler: Franklin's "Respect," a dazzling, feminist reworking of an Otis Redding song; Sledge's deep ballad "When A Man Loves A Woman" and Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour," with a horn vamp inspired by Wexler's admittedly rhythmless dancing.
Jerry Wexler's son Paul said the record producer died at home of heart disease; the death was first confirmed by David Ritz, co-author of Wexler's 1993 memoir, "Rhythm and the Blues."
Aretha Franklin noted that Wexler produced her first platinum album, the classic 1972 gospel recording "Amazing Grace."

"I think the things that we produced absolutely brought soul to the forefront as evidenced by my having the cover of Time magazine," she said. "There had definitely been a musical revolution there, revolutionary change in music, and soul came into prominence."

He also produced Dusty Springfield's classic "Dusty in Memphis," which would become a benchmark of "blue-eyed" soul, as well as key recordings for the Memphis-based soul label Stax Records; Wexler created a partnership where Atlantic distributed Stax records and eventually took control of their master recordings.

Jerry Wexler was the son of Polish immigrants and a music buff since his teens, Wexler, a New York City native, landed a job writing for Billboard magazine in the late 1940s after serving in World War II and studying journalism at Kansas State University. He coined the term "rhythm and blues" for the magazine's Black music charts; previously, they were listed under "race records." The album covers were plain brown wrappers so that no Black artist's picture would appear on the record cover. Race Music was considered vulgar and was believed to be capable of perverting white youths. Elvis Presley took the music and the lyrics to mainstream white audiences. He was the bridge that allowed Black music to reach white audiences. His performing of Black R&B songs opened the door for Black artists to reach mainstream audiences.

Bernie Mac died early Saturday 9 August from complications due to pneumonia. The Emmy-nominated comedian-actor was 50.

His career, which began in comedy clubs in 1977, and continues with the fall movie Soul Men, costarring his friend Samuel L. Jackson.

He always knew the secret of his success was his willingness to speak the truth about his life — without fear. When he was eight, and performing his first stand-up at a church function, the honesty earned him a spanking from his grandmother (whom he'd impersonated).
In 2000, it garnered him a mainstream audience after the R-rated, Spike-Lee directed concert film The Original Kings of Comedy hit theaters. (One of the funniest routines ever?)
In 2001, it scored him a hit Fox sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show, which lasted five seasons. ''I want to speak directly to the audience,'' Mac told EW, ''to say I'm like you — I'm frustrated, I'm not an expert, I don't have a manual on parenting, I make mistakes, I'm selfish too. Now all of a sudden I have kids — they break stuff, they talk back, one kid pees on himself. It's not a Black show; everybody has these problems.''

Isaac Hayes Died from High Blood Pressure.
He was found next to treadmill in his home on Sunday 10 August.

Preliminary reports indicate that Isaac Hayes, who died 10 August 2008 at the age of 65, was likely the victim of high blood pressure.

Shelby County Tennessee Medical Examiner Dr. David Kraus reached the conclusion based on the fact that Hayes was being treated for high blood pressure and had suffered a nonfatal, but reportedly serious stroke last year. Hayes was found unconscious next to a running treadmill in his Memphis, Tennessee home. There was no evidence that Hayes, who had once described himself as a "health fanatic," hit his head or suffered any trauma prior to his death.

"The Hayes family is comfortable with Dr. Kraus' recommendation to not conduct an autopsy," read a statement from the Shelby County sheriff. According to The Associated Press, no autopsy was performed. A public memorial service was held August 18 at the Hope Presbyterian Church in Cordova, Tennessee.

"We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and love from Isaac's dear friends, colleagues and fans from every corner of the world, and we thank each and every one of them for their kind thoughts and prayers," the family said in a statement on the singer's Web site. "While he was an iconic figure to many, to us he was husband, father and friend. We will ever miss his love, wisdom, humor and the familiar comfort of his voice."

Draped in gold chains, with a shaved head and barrel chest, Isaac Hayes was an intimidating presence. He could bench-press 350 pounds, and his voice was as bottomless as the Grand Canyon.



They called him "Black Moses." It was a persona he reluctantly adopted. One of his bodyguards referred to him that way after a particularly galvanizing performance. Hayes was nonplused: "No, no, no, don't lay that religious stuff on me." But a magazine writer overheard, spread the word, "and the next thing I know I'm being introduced that way at the Spectrum in Philly," Hayes said in a 1995 interview with the Tribune.

Hayes, who died Sunday at age 65, was a superstar in the early '70s. With his "Theme From Shaft," he was the toast of both the music industry and Hollywood, the first black composer to win an Oscar. Yet the music always aimed deeper. "Shaft," his ode to a private detective who travels to his own lawbreaking beat, is a warts-and-all portrait of the movie's hero. The music was equally volatile, a mix of slamming strings, hissing hi-hats, funky wah-wah guitars and dramatic monologue. Hayes was as much a thespian as a songwriter, with an unrivaled ability to go inside the stories he was telling. The key to his art was his ability to listen; his songs didn't just aim to sell, they empathized. He took listeners inside the heads of the characters he portrayed.

It all started with him getting a job as a pianist at Stax Records in Memphis in the early '60s, when he was still in his early 20s. Hayes was self-taught on saxophone and piano, learning on the job with various bands on the Memphis bar circuit. He started writing songs with lyricist David Porter, and together they found a muse in the vocal combo of Sam Moore and Dave Prater: Sam & Dave.

"We hung out and listened to their stories," Hayes said in the 1995 interview. "We'd get together the night before a session to write, and we liked to have the artists present—especially Sam and Dave—because we fed off them, we tailored songs to them."

The next day, Hayes would sit at the piano calling out chord changes to the rest of the Stax house band while Sam and Dave sang. Out of this casual atmosphere, the hits started to come. Hayes and Porter co-wrote more than 200 songs, including numerous hits for Sam & Dave ("Soul Man," "Hold on! I'm Comin'," "You Don't Know Like I Know," "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby"), as well as Carla Thomas ("B-A-B-Y"), Mable John ("Your Good Thing") and Johnny Taylor ("I Had a Dream").

Hayes released an album of his own in 1967 to little notice, but his live performances magnified his storytelling skills. Frequently he would be confronted by audiences that were barely paying attention, more intent on partying, drinking and picking up members of the opposite sex. To get their attention, Hayes would improvise spoken introductions to many songs. His tastes were omnivorous. He did not distinguish between soul, gospel, country and blues: "You're dealing with raw truth, and believe it or not, country and western and soul music are first cousins, because it's the voice of the common folk."

He heard that truth in some of the pop hits of the day. He loved Dionne Warwick's version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Walk on By," and Glen Campbell's rendition of Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Neither song would've been particularly well-received on a raucous Saturday night in the South during the '60s, but Hayes was determined to perform them both. He began improvising introductions, as if creating a prologue to the story told in the songs of splintered relationships.

Hayes included an 18-minute version of "Phoenix" and a 12-minute version of "Walk on By" on his 1969 album, "Hot Buttered Soul." With its iconic cover image of Hayes' bald head, it established the singer as a solo star in his own right.

Two years later, Hayes was a superstar, thanks to "Shaft." He never again reached those heights, even declaring bankruptcy in the '70s after Stax went belly up. But the music he made continued to embrace all styles, and cut across lines of generation and race.

"Every human being on this planet responds on an aesthetic level," Hayes said in 1995. "Music hovers in that band. It doesn't matter if it's Glen Campbell or 'Shaft,' if it touches me, I find a way to do it."

CDR Merle J. Smith, the First Black CGA graduate. Class of 1966.

U.S. Coast Guard Academy: Promoting Diversity and Cultural Understanding

I Recently spoke with the first Black senior officer, active or retired, to hold a faculty position at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He holds a position as a law professor under CDR Glenn Sulmasy, a National Security/Foreign Policy Expert.

CDR Merle J. Smith* (ret) has pioneered many times over but this recent development may be the most important task that has been assigned to him by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Amongst other tough assignments that he has taken, CDR Smith is the first Black graduate of the Academy and one of the first academy graduates to hold a command position in the Vietnam War.

In words that he shared with me a long while back, "Getting through the academy as someone 'different' was much more dramatic than any small boat patrol along the Meikong Delta

The senior administration of the Coast Guard recently cited an urgent need for minority appointees at CGA, according to Smith. He was hired shortly after.

This is an admirable and effective move by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

He will offer a unique perspective within the law department, a positive image to all cadets, an outlet for tough questions that black active duty members are afraid to answer, and he will escalate the pace while improving the efficiency of the minority recruiting process.


*No relation to former Cadet Webster M. Smith, who wrote this article.

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman is injured in car accident 3 August 2008.


Actor Morgan Freeman is in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., on Monday 3 August after being seriously injured in a car accident near his home in Mississippi.

Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima belonging to Demaris Meyer of Memphis when the car left a rural highway and flipped several times shortly before midnight Sunday.

Demaris Meyer, the owner of the car, is merely a good friend of Morgan Freeman. Bill Rogers, who saw the accident happen, recalled a conversation he had with Freeman at the scene: "He said that she had offered him a ride home; that they were friends, and she didn't really know the way and so he was going to drive the vehicle."

"There's no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved," Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing seat belts. The woman's condition was not immediately available.

Freeman was airlifted to the hospital in Tennessee.

Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about 5 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

McFerrin said it appeared that Freeman's car was airborne when it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

"They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle," McFerrin said. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor.

When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, "no freebies, no freebies," McFerrin said.

Freeman won an Oscar for his role in "Million Dollar Baby." His screen credits also include "The Shawshank Redemption," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Dark Knight," now in theaters.

He was born in Memphis, Tenn., but spent much of his childhood in the Mississippi Delta. He is a co-owner of the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale.

The hospital where Freeman is being treated is commonly known as The Med, and is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.

Freeman said he was feeling "real good" on Thursday, 7 August after his release from a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital where he was treated for broken bones and other injuries from a weekend car crash.

Freeman, 71, lost control of the car he was driving late on Sunday night near a home he keeps in Charleston, Mississippi, and was airlifted to the trauma center of the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

"I left the hospital today, just after 12 noon, Memphis time," the co-star of the blockbuster Batman movie "The Dark Knight" said in a brief statement.

"I'm doing very well. I feel real good."

He concluded by thanking hospital staff and well-wishers, saying, "It's great to know people care about you."
Freeman's publicist, Donna Lee, said on Monday the actor suffered a broken arm and elbow and "minor shoulder damage" but was expected to make a full recovery after undergoing surgery.

The celebrity news TV show "Entertainment Tonight" reported on its website that Freeman underwent surgery on Monday to reconnect nerves and repair damage to his left arm and hand.

A passenger and owner of the car Freeman was driving, a female friend identified as Demaris Meyer, was also injured.




Freeman and his wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, “are involved in a divorce action.”

It has also been reported that the two have actually been separated ‘for legal and practical purposes’ since December 2007.

Myrna Colley-Lee was born in 1941 in Hamlett, North Carolina, which makes her age 67. Myrna attended college in North Carolina and went on to get her M.F.A from Temple University. She has gone on to do costume work on several plays and is currently working on Till, which will run at Brown University. Alongside theatre, Myrna has worked on several television and film projects. She is also very involved in supporting the arts, serving on such boards as Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort, Inc. and the Rock River Foundation.

Myrna married Morgan Freeman in 1984 after dating for eight years. Freeman has allegedly had a reputation for “liking the ladies” but the couple was married for 24 years.

Their marriage was the second for both and they have one child together. Myrna also has a child from a previous marriage who Morgan adopted, and he has two other children. The couple have a 126-acre ranch near Charleston, Mississippi.

Hopefully, the two can somehow work it out. They’ve been together for so long!