Artist: David Newman

David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 – January 20, 2009)was an American  jazz and rhythm-and-blues  saxophonist, who made numerous recordings as a session musician and leader, but is best known for his work as a sideman on seminal 1950s and early 1960s recordings by Ray Charles. 

The AllMusic Guide to Jazz wrote that "there have not been many saxophonists and flutists more naturally  soulful than David 'Fathead' Newman." Newman was a leading exponent of the "Texas Tenor" saxophone style, a big-toned, bluesy approach popularized by jazz tenor players from that state. 

Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas, United States, in 1933, but grew up in Dallas, where he studied first the piano and then the saxophone.  Inspired by the jump blues bandleader Louis Jordan, Newman took up the alto saxophone in the seventh grade, and was mentored by former Count Basie  saxophonist Buster Smith. Newman went on to Jarvis Christian College on a music and theology scholarship but quit school after three years and began playing professionally. 

Newman began his career playing mostly jazz and blues, with a number of musicians that included Buster Smith, pianist Lloyd Glenn, and guitarist bandleaders Lowell Fulson and T-Bone Walker. 

Newman met and befriended Ray Charles in early 1951 when Charles was playing piano and singing with the Lowell Fulson band. Newman joined Charles's band in 1954 as a baritone saxophone player, but later switched to tenor and became the principal saxophone soloist after tenor saxophonist  Don Wilkerson left the band. 

Many of Charles's seminal recordings during the 1950s and early 1960s feature a saxophone solo by Newman. These include hits such as "Lonely Avenue", "Swanee River Rock", "Ain't That Love", "The Right Time" (with Newman on alto sax), and "Unchain My Heart". Although his solos were short in duration, they became, as The New York Times later noted, "crucial to the Ray Charles sound". Atlantic Records' producer Jerry Wexler, who worked with Charles, called Newman Charles's "alter ego on tenor".  

In 1959, Newman released his debut album as a leader, Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Newman, with Charles playing piano. He stayed with the Ray Charles band until 1964, and rejoined the group in 1970–1971.