http://www.houstonpress.com/music/legendary-crusaders-sax-man-wilton-felder-passes-away-7800449
 
Such a sad loss. He was one of my favourite saxophonists and also a great bass player too.
 
https://youtu.be/YqDF-wL3VXM?t=11m45s

What a fantastic musician. He played bass on everything from Seals and Crofts' Diamond Girl and Billy Joel's Piano Man to my favorite Joni Mitchell album; the Hissing Of Summer Lawns.
 
Here' something interesting, though not necessarily a worthy tribute to such a great musician: Wilton Felder's isolated bass track from I Want You Back by the Jackson 5:
 

 
The full song:
 

Thanks Jazzyvee; that's a nice video cut.

My first introduction to the Crusaders, when I was a little kid toddling my first forays into jazz-funk, was Keep that same old feeling from the These Southern Knights album. Oh man, how I loved that sound! That album had a lot of play in my little record player (and whenever Dad was not around, on his Stereo!). Then it came Street Life and I was hooked for life. Absolutely classy!. RIP Wilton..

I have the Crusaders' CD Healing the Wounds from 1991.  Here is Wilton Felder featured on from that album.  The bass player on this album is Marcus Miller.  And of course the piano here is the late Joe Sample.  Beautiful tune.

The first track of theirs I heard was Spiral. When I was just starting out as a guitarist, I was talking to one of the elder musicians in my area, ha, was probably in his early 20's, anyway I was curious as to what kind of music I could learn from. He pushed the album Those Southern Knights in my hands said, learn the solo on Spiral.
That was my first introduction to The Crusaders and have been a big fan ever since. I saw them in concert three times here in the UK. I think once was before street life and got to meet the band by the stage entrance and got their autographs. I always remember Wilton's signature because he did the W on it's side, a bit like a  number 3 which I thought was really cool. I'll see if I can find the picture.

Oh man. What a great musician. Of course, my introduction to his work was via the Crusaders, but he's done so much more than that. Are there even musicians like this any more, who can do so much for so many different kinds of artists, now that the studio/record company paradigm has collapsed?

His solo on Street Life is epic