Hank Crawford -

Hank Crawford (Dec. 12, 1934 — Jan. 29, 2009) was an American post-bop/jazz-funk alto saxophonist, arranger, and composer from Memphis. From 1958 to 1963, he served as musical director for Ray Charles. Crawford commenced his bandleader catalogue with the 1961 Atlantic release More Soul, then recorded for Kudu/CTI and Milestone with collaborators including Grant Green, Idris Muhammad, and Jimmy McGriff.

Background

Hank Crawford was born Bennie Ross Crawford Jr. on Dec. 21, 1934, in Memphis, Tennessee. He began formal piano lessons at age nine and soon played for a church choir. His father returned from military service with an alto saxophone, and Crawford learned the instrument at Manassas High School under band director Matthew Garrett. Schoolmates included pianist Harold Mabern and saxophonist George Coleman.

While still at Manassas, Crawford played in Memphis bands led by Ben Branch, Tuff Green, Ike Turner, and drummer Al Jackson Sr. Those groups backed B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Johnny Ace, and Roscoe Gordon at the Palace Theatre and Club Paradise. In 1953, Crawford entered Tennessee State College in Nashville, where he studied music theory and composition. He led the school dance band, whose members included vocalist Leon Thomas.

Outside college, Crawford led Little Hank and the Rhythm Kings at the Subway Lounge in Nashville’s Printers Alley. Producer Roy Hall heard the quartet there and financed the 1956 Rhythm & Range 101 single “Christene” (b/w “The House of Pink Lights”), with Crawford on saxophone and lead vocals.

Ray Charles hired Crawford as baritone saxophonist in 1958 after Leroy “Hog” Cooper left the band. Crawford played the July 5 Newport Jazz Festival set and contributed the instrumental “Sherry” to Ray Charles at Newport. At a November Atlantic date, Crawford arranged four tracks — “Hard Times,” “Bill for Bennie,” “Sweet Eyes,” and “Weird Beard” — for tenor saxophonist David Newman.

Cooper returned in 1959, and Crawford moved to alto saxophone. By 1960, Crawford served as Charles’s musical director. Crawford entered his first Atlantic leader session in New York on Oct. 7, 1960, and cut More Soul with Newman tenor saxophonist David Newman, baritone saxophonist Leroy Cooper, bassist Edgar Willis, drummer Milt Turner, and trumpeters Phil Guilbeau and John Hunt.

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