Jazz Crusader Wilton Felder dies aged 75

The news was announced online via his friend and collaborator, guitarist Ray Parker Junior and Felder’s passing follows the recent deaths last year of fellow Crusaders band mates, keyboardist Joe Sample and trombonist Wayne Henderson, leaving just drummer Nesbert ‘Stix’ Hooper as the surviving original member.

The trio of Felder, Sample and Hooper met at Phillis Wheatly High School, adding Henderson and then taking the name the Jazz Crusaders in the 1950s. The band established themselves as one of the hottest outfits on the West Coast recording 10 hard-bop albums, starting with their first album Freedom Sound in 1961 and building up a sizeable following from their base in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s they dropped the ‘Jazz’ prefix, becoming known simply as The Crusaders,and embraced jazz-funk, with Sample increasingly opting to play keyboards over piano, developing a gritty signature sound on Fender Rhodes, while Larry Carlton was brought in on guitar. They greatly expanded their audience as a result, recording noted albums such as Chain Reaction and Southern Comfort and securing chart hits, among them the Sample composition ‘Street Life’ – featuring vocalist Randy Crawford.

Felder, who had played bass Marvin Gaye and Jackson Five sessions for Motown and also played on albums by Joni Mitchell, Michael Franks and Grant Green, released his solo debut Bullitt in 1970, followed by 1978’s We All Have a Star, while his 1985 album, Secrets, featured Bobby Womack on vocals.

– Jon Newey