Jazz Articles about Hank Crawford
About Hank Crawford
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
Article Coverage | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsHank Crawford: Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing
by Dan Bilawsky
Saxophonist Hank Crawford will forever be linked to his one-time employer, the great Ray Charles, in the minds of R&B lovers, but soul-fusion fans are likely to remember him for a string of albums he recorded on the Kudu label in the 1970s. Crawford and tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine proved to be the two pillars of potent saxophone soul in label head/producer Creed Taylor's stable during this era, but Crawford's work is often overlooked now, while Turrentine's albums still get ...
read moreHank Crawford: Low Flame High Heat
by AAJ Staff
If Low Flame High Heat proves nothing else, it proves the consistency of Hank Crawford. Listen to his most recent CD, The World Of Hank Crawford on Milestone. Then listen to Label M's Low Flame High Heat from the early 1960's. Crawford's urgent tone and spiritual feel haven't changed in decades, proving that he was extremely good early in his career and that even today no one quite sounds like him. Low Flame High Heat compiles tracks from ...
read moreHank Crawford: Memphis, Ray and a Touch of Moody
by Douglas Payne
director from 1958-64, already had his own sound on alto sax by 1960 when he started his own Atlantic recording career (quite a feat in the wake of Bird and the dawn of Cannonball). During the next decade, he produced a consistent catalog of soulful sets for Atlantic, almost all well worth hearing.This excellent two-disc set brings back four (!) of the best and earliest of Crawford's long out-of-print Atlantic LPs: his debut, More Soul (1960); his third, ...
read moreHank Crawford: Down on the Deuce
by Douglas Payne
Although Hank Crawford's second Milestone LP was made in 1984, it's never been available on CD until this 1998 release. It's a welcome, enjoyable date that finds Hank digging into what he does best. There's a bit 'a funk ("Survival"), a bit 'a blues ("Used To Be Love" and “Down Home Blues"), some ballads (the yucky Kenny Rogers hit “Through The Years") and a little boogaloo (the title track). With producer Bob Porter at the helm, a first-rate cast of ...
read moreHank Crawford / Jimmy McGriff: Road Tested
by Douglas Payne
Alto man Hank Crawford and organist Jimmy McGriff are made for each other. Mixing the right brew of blues, swing and funk, they compliment one another's soulful sound in distinctive style. Road Tested, the seventh pairing under both their names, is exactly what you'd expect from these two: the tried and trues of funk and blues. What gives it an edge, though, is Crawford and McGriff riffing in the excellent company of Wayne Boyd on guitar and funkmaster Bernard Purdie ...
read moreHank Crawford: Tight
by Douglas Payne
Here's a most pleasant surprise from the familiar tenor of Hank Crawford - a terrific collection of familiar soul/jazz tunes worthy of his deeply soulful skills and abundant talent. The former Ray Charles section leader has always known how to craft bluesy, soulful sessions - from many, many Atlantic dates in the 60s and terrific soul/disco dates on Kudu, Versatile and Groove Merchant in the 70s. The appeal of this April-May 1996 recording is similar to the appeal found in ...
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