A quick glance of bassist Anthony Crawford’s collection of work, you’d think this musician has played everywhere and seen everything along the way.
Few bass players can say that they’ve played the Democratic National Convention during former president Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2000, then to appear in a Burger King commercial alongside Shaquille O’Neal two years later in 2002.
Anthony has toured and appeared on albums with a list of whose-who of jazz, gospel, pop and RnB acts including:
- Justin Timberlake,
- Erykah Badu,
- George Duke,
- Stanley Clarke,
- Herbie Hankcock,
- Howard Hewett,
- Peabo Bryson,
- Jeff Lorber,
- Dave Weckl,
- Everette Harp,
- Frank McComb,
- Andrae Crouch,
- Karen Briggs,
- Virgil Donati,
- Allan Holdsworth,
- Eric Marienthal
Anthony also released a solo CD titled, Urban Jazz – My Story in April 2013 receiving favorable reviews from No Treble, and Bass Players United and soon after the release of Anthony Crawford’s solo album, he was featured on the front page of “Top 40 Charts” alone with Stevie Wonder and the MTV Movie Awards.
Anthony Crawford was also invited to perform at the 2011 Emmy Awards show.
Anthony continues to perform, produce and record as a solo artist and as a sideman in Los Angeles all of which can be found on his website.
In between shows, I reached out to Anthony via email to see if he would be interested in being a part of the How I Play series to which he was delighted to be a part of.
So here we go: this is bassist Anthony Crawford and this is how he plays:
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Where are you currently located? I’m currently living in Los Angeles, California.
What is your current gig? The current band I’m playing in is the Virgil Donati Band and sometimes I play with Allan Holdsworth. I’m working on a variety of other projects as well. I’m writing music for television as well as writing music for other artists. I’m also working on my 3rd solo album.
What is one word that describes your playing? One word that I think would describe my playing would be “groove”.
Describe your current setup and what is favorite piece of gear at the moment? My current set up is a 2×10 Promethean bass amp and a 4×10 Promethean bass amp. My main bass is a Roscoe 6 string bass. My pedal board is a Boss GT-10. My Roscoe bass is my favorite piece of gear.
What is one thing you could not live without? One thing I cannot live without would be Family Guy…seriously lol
What is your practice space like? My current practice space is my home studio.
What album are you currently listening to? Lately I have been listening to a lot of Tool. Tool is one of my favorite bands.
What book are you currently reading? Lately I have been reading a lot on mixing and engineering. Because I’m writing and recording music for artists and major television production companies, I have to make sure my music and tracks are sounding good. I know a lot people will judge the music based on the mix.
I’d love to see ____ answer these questions. I would love to see Christian Galvez answer these questions.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? The best piece of advice I ever received was from a good friend mine name Scott Nickoley.
He told me “don’t wait on anyone. Move forward with your vision”. He told me those words because a major big time music producer was supposed to produce my first album. But the producer got really busy and was not able to produce it. I was kind of bombed out about that. So I went to Scott and he gave me the advice to not wait on anyone. When I decided to move forward and not wait on anyone, that’s when my career took off.
Check out Anthony’s performance of The Brecker Brother’s, “Song for Barry” here while performing with Virgil Donati’s band:
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