Tuesday, February 3, 2009

RIP: Hank Crawford


Another great sax man gone...

From the New York Times:

Hank Crawford, whose fluidly emotional saxophone solos as a sideman for Ray Charles led to a long career as a leader of jazz and soul bands and a lengthy discography for Atlantic, Kudu and Milestone Records, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 74. 
The cause was complications of a stroke he had in 2000, his sister Delores said.
Beginning in the early 1960s, when Mr. Crawford was music director for Charles’s big band and also recorded on his own as a bandleader, he was best known as an alto saxophonist who melded a wailing blues style to the melodic and rhythmic exigencies of modern jazz, funk and soul. He proved an especially flexible musician over the decades as styles of popular music swiveled hither and yon.

Fellow sax great David "Fathead" Newman--another Charles sideman--passed away last month. 

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