Hank Crawford is an American R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, soul jazz alto saxophonist, arranger and songwriter. Crawford was musical director for
Ray Charles before embarking on a solo career releasing many well-regarded albums on Atlantic, CTI and Milestone.
Crawford was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He began formal piano studies at the age of nine and was soon playing for his church choir. His father had brought an alto saxophone home from the service and when Hank entered Manassas High School, he took it up in order to join the band.
Crawford appears on an early 1952 Memphis recording for
B.B. King with a band including
Ben Branch and
Ike Turner. Crawford met
Ray Charles, who hired Crawford originally as a baritone saxophonist. Crawford switched to alto in 1959 and remained with Charles' band, becoming its musical director until 1963. When Crawford left
Ray Charles in 1963 to form his own septet, he had already established himself with several albums for Atlantic Records. From 1960 until 1970, he recorded twelve LPs for the label.
Much of his career has been in R&B, but in the 1970s he had several successful jazz albums, with I Hear a Symphony reaching 11 on Billboard's Jazz albums list and 159 for Pop albums.