First Fathead, now Hank Crawford R.I.P.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/arts/music/03crawford.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

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.

A sampling of his recorded tracks from the ’60s and ’70s would encompass, say, “The Peeper,” a bluesy swing number reminiscent of the Duke Ellington tunes he first listened to at home as a child; “New York’s One Soulful City,” an example of the rhythmically funky if melodically saccharine sounds of some television themes of the ’70s; and “I Hear a Symphony,” a soulful disco cover of the 1965 Supremes hit.

Heard this sad news over the weekend. WPFW played some of his memorable work. R.I.P.

http://assets.mog.com/amg/pop/cov200/drf500/f542/f54256f9n0i.jpg

I need that one

http://jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/2/4/newman-crawford-remembered