Wilton Felder, Smooth jazz Artist

This week’s Featured Artist is best known by jazz fans around the world as a saxophonist and bass player, and one of the founding members of the successfully famous jazz band, “The Crusaders”.  Meet jazz saxophonist and bassist – Wilton Felder

Born in Houston, Texas, USA

Genre:Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Funk, Pop, Soul, Rock

Wilton Felder is a saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of The Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders.  Felder, Wayne Henderson, Joe Sample, and Stix Hooper founded the group while in high school in Houston.  The Jazz Crusaders evolved from a straight-ahead jazz combo into a pioneering jazz-rock fusion group, with a definite soul music influence.  Felderworked with the original group for over thirty years, and continues to work in its current versions, which often feature other founding members.

Felder also worked as a West coast studio musician, mostly playing electric bass, for various soul and R&B musicians, and was one of the in-house bass players for Motown Records, when the record label opened up operations in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1970s.  He played on recordings by the Jackson 5 such as “I Want You Back” and “The Love You Save,” for Marvin Gaye and Grant Green.  He has also played bass for soft rock groups like America and Seals and Crofts.  Also of note was his contribution to the John Cale album, Paris 1919, and Billy Joel’s Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade albums.  He was one of three bass players on Randy Newman’s Sail Away (1972) and Joan BaezDiamonds & Rust.  Felder also anchored albums from Joni Mitchell and Michael Franks.

He enjoyed a successful solo career with his 1980 album “Inherit The Wind,” which went to #4 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and “Secrets” which peaked at #8.  Some of his other top albums include “Nocturnal Moods”, “Forever Always” and “Let’s Spend Some Time”.

Felder plays a King Super 20 tenor sax with a metal 105/0 Berg Larsen mouthpiece.  He has also used Yamaha Saxe, plays a Fender Precision bass, and has also played Aria bass guitars.

Biographical information courtesy of Wikipedia; see link below for more reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton_Felder