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 was born 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 combo into a pioneering jazz-rock fusion group, 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. Also of note were his contributions to the
John Cale album
Paris 1919,
Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic (1974), and
Billy Joel's Piano Man and
Streetlife Serenade albums. He was one of three bass players on
Randy Newman's Sail Away (1972) and
Joan Baez' Diamonds & Rust. Felder also anchored albums from
Grant Green,
Joni Mitchell and
Michael Franks.
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,
"(No Matter How High I Get) I'll Still be Looking Up to You", sung by Womack and
Alltrinna Grayson.
Felder played a King Super 20 tenor sax with a metal 105/0 Berg Larsen mouthpiece. He also used Yamaha saxes. He played a 1968 Fender Precision Bass.
Felder died in 2015 at his home in Whittier, California from multiple myeloma. He was 75.
