Ray Crawford (musician)

Ray Crawford (* 7. February 1924 in Pittsburgh , † thirtieth December 1997 ) was an American jazz - guitarist .

Ray Crawford initially played tenor saxophone and clarinet with Fletcher Henderson from 1941 to 1943 , but had to give up these instruments due to a tuberculosis disease and switched to guitar. He was a member of the Four Strings around Joe Kennedy, Jr. from 1949 , from 1950 to 1955 one of Ahmad Jamal's early drum-less trios , to be heard on his recordings for Okeh and Epic Records ( Chamber Music of New Jazz ), where he was also took over the rhythm function. Crawford then took part in record sessions with Babs Gonzales , Gil Evans ( Great Jazz Standards , 1959 and Out of the Cool , 1960). In 1961 he recorded his first album under his own name on the Candid label, Smooth Groove , with Johnny Coles , Cecil Payne , Junior Mance , Ben Tucker and Frankie Dunlop . In 1962 he was a member of the sextet of Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton ( Katanga ); he also played from 1958 to the 1980s with Jimmy Smith (including recordings with Bill Henderson , 1958). In addition to the Candid album, he recorded two LPs for the Dobre (1977) and United National (1978) labels . He can also be heard on albums by Lorez Alexandria , Lou Donaldson , Lou Rawls , Sonny Criss and Tom Waits ( Blue Valentine ).

According to Cook / Morton, his play on Smooth Groove is reminiscent of Grant Green and Kenny Burrell .

literature

Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002
Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .