Hank Crawford 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 Ray Charles before embarking on a solo career releasing many well-regarded albums for labels such as Atlantic (12 albums), CTI/Kudu (8 albums) and Milestone (19 albums). He was an acknowledged influence on younger players in what would become the Smooth Jazz style, notably David Sanborn.