Jerry Leiber, R.I.P.

One half of one of the most important songwriting teams in American music.  Gone at age 78.  His life and career intersected with those of so many other major figures: of course, his songwriting partner, Mike Stoller, but also Lester Sill, Johnny Otis, Big Mama Thornton, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, Elvis Presley, The Coasters, the Drifters, George Goldner, Phil Spector.  He and Stoller were key figures in the Brill Building's transition from a hub of Great American Songbook activity to the creative engine of a new era of music, informed by the beat and harmonic and melodic sensibility of R&B and rock & roll.