Wilton Felder


Wilton Lewis Felder was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as the Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Want You Back" and "ABC" and on Marvin Gaye's "Let's [Get It On |Let's Get It On]".

Biography

Felder was born on August 31, 1940, in Houston, Texas and studied music at Texas Southern University. Felder, Wayne Henderson, Joe Sample, and Stix Hooper founded their group while in high school in Houston. The Jazz Crusaders evolved from a straight-ahead jazz group into a pioneering jazz-rock fusion band, with a definite soul music influence. Felder worked with the original group for over thirty years, and continued to work in its later versions, which often featured 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 operations in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. He played on recordings by the Jackson 5 such as "I Want You Back", "ABC" and "The Love You Save", as well as recordings by Marvin Gaye including "Let's Get It On" and "I Want You". He also played bass for soft rock groups like Seals and Crofts. Felder played bass on #1 big hit The Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat", not James Jamerson. He played on records by many other musicians such as Four Tops Keeper of the Castle, Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic, Joni Mitchell's For the Roses, John Cale's Paris 1919, Billy Joel's Piano Man, Randy Newman's Sail Away and Joan Baez' Diamonds & Rust. Felder also contributed to albums from Grant Green and Michael Franks. He released the album "Inherit the Wind" with Bobby Womack in 1980.
His album Secrets, which prominently featured Bobby Womack on vocals, reached No. 77 in the UK Albums Chart in 1985. The album featured the minor hit, " I'll Still be Looking Up to You", sung by Womack and Alltrinna Grayson.
Felder died in 2015 at his home in Whittier, California from multiple myeloma. He was 75.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

With The Crusaders
With Joan Baez
With Four Tops
With Donald Byrd
With Donovan
With Jackson Browne
With John Cale
With Michael Franks
With Marvin Gaye
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Grant Green
With Richard "Groove" Holmes
With The Hues Corporation
With Ronnie Laws
With Joni Mitchell
With Randy Newman
With B.B. King
With Harry Nilsson
With Jennifer Warnes
With Milt Jackson
With Tina Turner
With John Klemmer
With Charles Kynard
With Minnie Riperton
With Ringo Starr
With Carmen McRae
With Billy Joel
With Randy Crawford
With Shuggie Otis
With Dusty Springfield
With Jean-Luc Ponty
With Seals & Crofts
With Jimmy Smith
With Steely Dan
With Gerald Wilson
With Hugh Masekela