Guest teacher profile: Anthony Crawford

Born June 29th, 1981, Anthony Crawford was raised in a family of talented musicians. His father, funk and rock drummer Hubert (H bomb) Crawford has played with notable greats like James Brown, Mothers Finest, Mark Farner of the Grandfunk Railroad, The bar kays, and the was the original drummer for the Eric Gales Band, while his uncle is the legendary jazz saxophonist Hank Crawford. With such strong musical influences in his life, Anthony began playing the drums at the tender age of 2. At about 6 years old, he began to attend his fathers performances. It was at this time that Anthony started to visualize and dream of being on stage and playing the drums like his father. Soon after, this young gifted musician entered and won several school talent contests. It was not until Anthony reached his 12th birthday that he finally picked up the bass for the very first time. He knew, just at that moment that he was meant to be a bass player. He walked away from the drums, never looked back, and began practicing the bass night and day. When Anthony was 14 he began playing with his father and has set in with the Bette Midler Band. As a freshman in high school, he then met Derrick Dean, keyboardist, and Trevor Taylor, drummer. The trio soon became good friends and decided to form a band. Together they performed at church and for a variety of Memphis community choirs. Through these experiences, Anthony was introduced to many forms of jazz and musical genres. Musically, Anthony has been greatly influenced by rock bands and bassists like Doug Wimbish, Les Claypool, Doug Pinnick, Metallica, Deep Purple, and Ozzy Osbourne. But the turning point surrounding his musical influences was when he recalls, I got A Show Of Hands by Victor Wooten. That record completely changed my life. I must have learned that whole entire record from beginning to end. That record made me really explore my talent in ways I never thought possible. It was after this musical experience that he began listening to other great bass players like Stanly Clark, Marcus Miller and Jaco to name a few. In 2000, post high school graduation Anthony flew to Los Angeles to play at the National Democratic Convention for Bill Clinton. Two years later he appeared in a Burger King commercial with the basketball star, Shaquille ONeal. The following year, Anthony released his first record entitled Satisfied. Anthony began playing with the legendary R&B group Shalmor in 2004 and shortly after with Howard Hewett. He also performed with Justin Timberlake. Then he met jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum. Together the pair performed a few shows and collaborated to create the music for a movie commentary filmed in South Africa. On January 1st, 2008, Anthony moved to Los Angeles, has been actively performing within the LA Scene, and is currently working on a solo CD titled Urban Jazz" which will be re-released in the summer of 2010.

http://www.anthonycrawfordband.com