Anthony Crawford (born June 29, 1981) is an American bassist, songwriter, producer, and

recording artist A musician is someone who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate a person who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters, ...

from

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

, Tennessee. He is best known for working with

Chon CHNOPS and CHON are mnemonic acronyms for the most common elements in living organisms. "CHON" stands for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which together make up more than 95 percent of the mass of biological systems. "CHNOPS" adds ...

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz and rock music, rock guitarist, violinist and composer. He contributed to numerous bands, including Soft Machine, U.K. (band), U.K., The Tony Williams Lifetime, Pierre Moerl ...

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson ( ; born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the hit singles " Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", "You're Looking Like ...

Howard Hewett Howard Hewett Jr. (born October 1, 1955) is an American singer–songwriter. Hewett rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the group Shalamar. In 1985, he left the group to pursue his solo career, but he later returned to the group in 2001. He si ...

Shalamar Shalamar () is an American R&B and soul music vocal group created by Dick Griffey and Don Cornelius in 1977 and active throughout the 1980s. Shalamar's classic lineup on the SOLAR label consisted of Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey D ...

Kirk Whalum Kirk Whalum (born July 11, 1958) is an American R&B and smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. Whalum has recorded a series of commercially and critically acclaimed solo studio albums. Along with several film soundtracks, with music ranging fro ...

Phil Perry Philip Eugene Perry (born January 12, 1952) is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter, musician and a former member of the soul group, The Montclairs, from 1971 to 1975. He was also known for performing the opening song to Disney� ...

, Glen Jones, and Karen Briggs. Crawford also played bass for the National Democratic Convention for

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

in 2000.

Early life

Anthony Crawford was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, into a musical family including his father, drummer Hubert "H-Bomb" Crawford, and his uncle,

Hank Crawford Bennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. (December 21, 1934 – January 29, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist, pianist, arranger and songwriter whose genres ranged from R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, and soul jazz. Crawford was musical director for ...

, a well-known saxophonist. Hubert Crawford played with many notable acts, including

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

The Bar-Kays The Bar-Kays is an American funk band formed in 1964. The band had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including " Soul Finger" (US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number 17, R&B number 3) in 1967, "Son of Shaft" (R&B number 10) in ...

, The

Eric Gales Eric Gales (born October 29, 1974), also known as Raw Dawg, is an American blues rock guitarist, originally hailed as a child prodigy. Gales has recorded 19 albums for major record labels and has done session and tribute work. He has also co ...

Band, Mark Farner of "

Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad (often shortened to Grand Funk) is an American rock band formed in Flint, Michigan, in 1969 by Mark Farner (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Don Brewer (drums, vocals) and Mel Schacher (bass). The band achieved pea ...

", and

Ann Peebles Ann Lee Peebles (born April 27, 1947) is an American retired singer and songwriter who gained popularity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s while signed to Hi Records. Her most successful singles include " I Can't Stand the Rain", which s ...

. Anthony Crawford was considered a musical prodigy. At the age of 14, he sat in with the Bette Midler band. He later honed his talent while performing with a variety of Memphis community choirs and churches.

Career

After being discovered by several notable producers, including

Angelo Earl Angelo Earl is an American guitarist, record producer, songwriter and owner of Soul Street Records. Earl is most widely known for playing electric guitar on Al Green's "He Is The Light", Bobby Rush's "Southern Soul", the Bar-kays' "The Real Thi ...

, Crawford was asked to play at the National Democratic Convention for Bill Clinton. The word began to spread and, in 2002, he appeared in a Burger King commercial with basketball icon,

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

. This eventually led to him playing with well-known pop vocalist

. Crawford began serving as a bassist in the legendary R&B group

in 2004. Shortly after, he performed on tours and a DVD release with Shalamar frontman Howard Hewett. Crawford worked with saxophonist

and the pair donated their talents to create the soundtrack for a documentary film featuring

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

Melinda Gates Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, she was educated at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Duke University, and Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Shortly afte ...

, and

called

Miss HIV Miss HIV is a feature-length Documentary film, documentary by Ethnographic Media, released to DVD on August 26, 2008. Written and directed by Jim Hanon (Beyond the Gates of Splendor, End of the Spear), and produced by Mart Green, the film explore ...

, which was filmed in Toronto, Canada and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Crawford relocated from Memphis to Los Angeles, and began to widely proliferate on the LA scene. In 2010, he released his debut solo album, "Urban Jazz". In December 2010, Crawford joined

Virgil Donati Virgil Donati (born 22 October 1958) is an Australian drummer, composer and producer. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also proficient at the keyboard. Donati formed Planet X with Derek Sherinian and was the band's pri ...

's group for their upcoming tour. In 2017, Crawford served as studio bassist for

CHON CHNOPS and CHON are mnemonic acronyms for the most common elements in living organisms. "CHON" stands for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which together make up more than 95 percent of the mass of biological systems. "CHNOPS" adds ...

's ''Homey'' album. In 2019, Crawford served for

's self-titled album.

Discography

Anthony Crawford: * 2017

Witherfall Jake Dreyer (born May 2, 1992) is an American musician who is the lead guitarist and songwriter for the progressive metal band Witherfall and former lead guitarist for Iced Earth. He was also a touring and session guitarist for the bands Demons ...

"Nocturnes and Requiems" * 2010 ''Urban Jazz'' World Overcomers Outreach Ministry: * ''Kingdom Liberation LIVE'' FreeSol * ''11:11'' Howard Hewett * ''Intimate'' Delight * ''Rita Marie Valle'' Solstice * ''Exploration=Discovery'' * ''Hyperspace Wavelength Travel'' The Tim Terry Experience * ''Self-titled'' Floyd Taylor * ''No Doubt'' CHON * ''Homey'' * ''CHON''

References

External links

Anthony Crawford website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Anthony 1981 births Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee Living people Songwriters from Tennessee American jazz musicians Jazz musicians from Tennessee