Crawford often worked with tenor saxophonist David ("Fathead") Newman and coled combos with organist Jimmy McGriff; in 1981 he toured with pianist-singer Dr. John in the group Swamp Jam.
"I can't imagine a soprano or a tenor working all day long when they have a performance in the evening for a paid audience".
While simultaneously working as a tenor saxophonist — with Mingus, Teddy Charles and the Sandole Brothers, among others — and composing modern classical music as well as working in the classical-to-jazz idiom then called Third Stream, he joined Columbia Records in 1957.
Shortly after moving to New York in 1943 — within two days of his arrival, he later recalled — he began working with the tenor saxophonist Ben Webster at the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, and he remained a fixture on that celebrated nightclub row for many years.
If Neil Shicoff's hard-driving, hard-working tenor in the title role did not ring luxuriously, it certainly gained in veracity as the evening went on.
The album, "When the Heart Emerges Glistening" (Blue Note), features this working band with the tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, the bassist Harish Raghavan and the drummer Justin Brown; the group's piano chair, previously held by Gerald Clayton, now belongs to Sam Harris.
(Chinen) RALPH BOWEN QUINTET (Thursday) Ralph Bowen, a proficient and generally underrated tenor saxophonist working in the modern jazz mainstream, leads a top-shelf group with John Swana on trumpet, Vic Juris on guitar, Sam Yahel on organ and Dana Hall on drums.
Ellington had been on the road as a star bandleader for over a decade by the time the Blanton-Webster Band evolved - featuring the young double-bassist Jimmy Blanton (a short-lived newcomer who broke the mould for the way rhythm sections had previously worked) and the tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (one of the most quirky, personal-sounding tenor saxophonists in jazz.
In the handful of years before he became a full-time manager, he had accompanied Billie Holiday at Carnegie Hall; worked with the tenor saxophonists Don Byas and Lucky Thompson; and recorded in a trio with the pianist Lennie Tristano and the guitarist Billy Bauer.
He has worked with the tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and the drummer Tom Rainey in plenty of situations over the last 10 years; their trio explores written work as well as music where the floor drops out entirely.
"I'm not a great singer," he said, but, on songs like the title track and "Mr. Johnson's Lawn," his husky tenor works much the way his acting does.
