[JPL] Hank Crawford, Prolific Saxophonist, Dies at 74 (NY Times Obit)

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/arts/music/03crawford.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tn
temail1=y

February 3, 2009

Hank Crawford, Prolific Saxophonist, Dies at 74

By BRUCE WEBER

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
Charles¹s 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.

A sampling of his recorded tracks from the ¹60s and ¹70s would encompass,
say, ³The Peeper,² a bluesy swing number reminiscent of the Duke Ellington
tunes he first listened to at home as a child; ³New York¹s One Soulful
City,² an example of the rhythmically funky if melodically saccharine sounds
of some television themes of the ¹70s; and ³I Hear a Symphony,² a soulful
disco cover of the 1965 Supremes hit.

But Mr. Crawford¹s distinctively piercing sound remained constant, a
forceful and urgent plaintiveness that was rooted in the blues and delivered
with a preacher¹s fervor. In addition to working with Charles, over the
years he was an arranger, co-leader or sideman for blues masters of several
different stripes, among them Eric Clapton, Etta James, B. B. King and Jimmy
McGriff.

³He has a rich, throbbing tone and a way of phrasing like a blues singer,²
Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times in 1986. ³Mr. Crawford¹s solos are
artfully shaped, but they convey a naked emotionality.²

Bennie Ross Crawford Jr. was born in Memphis on Dec. 21, 1934, into a large
family and ³a jazz and gospel household,² as Delores Crawford described it
in a phone interview Monday. A pianist who played in church, he attended
Manassas High School, an incubator of musical talent with alumni including
Jimmie Lunceford and Isaac Hayes. Among Mr. Crawford¹s own schoolmates were
the future jazz notables George Coleman, Harold Mabern and Charles Lloyd.

Mr. Crawford¹s father was a truck driver who badly wanted to play the
saxophone but did not have the chops; still, he contributed to the history
of music.

³He was a confused saxophone player,² Ms. Crawford said. ³But he brought a
saxophone home with him from the Army, and put it in Hank¹s hands.²

Mr. Crawford was given his nickname as a teenager by some fellow musicians
who thought he sounded like a local saxophonist named Hank. He attended
Tennessee State University in Nashville and was just short of a degree when
Ray Charles came to town and offered him a gig in his band playing baritone
sax.

Mr. Crawford played baritone on several of Charles¹s records, including ³Ray
Charles at Newport² and ³What¹d I Say.² During his years with Charles, the
saxophone section also included David (Fathead) Newman, with whom he later
collaborated frequently, and Leroy (Hog) Cooper. Both Mr. Newman and Mr.
Cooper also died in January.

Mr. Crawford, whose first marriage ended in divorce, was a widower. In
addition to Delores Crawford, he is survived by two brothers, Danny and
Ceylon; three sisters, Shirley, Marva and Alma; a son, Michael; a daughter,
Sherri; and a granddaughter. All live in Memphis.


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