Best Music Writing 2009

“I met Jerry Wexler in New York City on Dec. 11, 1967, the day after Otis Redding had died. A self-described “vehement Jewish atheist,” he might have called our encounter a mitzvah. For me, plunged into despair and confusion, after being in the studio with Otis all the previous week, at Stax Records in Memphis, Tenn., as he recorded “Dock of the Bay,” it was nothing short of a miracle. Indeed, our meeting saved my life, as Jerry was to do, over and over, in the 40-plus years of our friendship.”