I have been a huge fan of The Jazz Crusaders/The Crusaders and co-founding member and keyboardist extraordinaire Joe Sample, in particular, since my freshman year in college. So, tonight's news of Sample's passing (along with the passing of fellow band co-founder and trombonist Wayne Henderson, earlier in the year) is truly saddening. These guys wrote for and played with everyone!
Jazz-funk pioneer Joe Sample dies at 75
Associated Press
(via) Washington Post
September 13 at 9:06 PM
Pianist and composer Joe Sample, a founding member of the genre-crossing Jazz Crusaders who helped pioneer the electronic jazz-funk fusion style, died Sept. 12 at a hospital in Houston. He was 75.
The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his manager, Patrick Rains.
The group, which later called itself the Crusaders, became a successful crossover act with such hits as the 1979 single and album “Street Life.” A few years before, it became the first instrumental band to tour with the Rolling Stones.
Mr. Sample’s songs were also sampled by hip-hop artists, including Tupac Shakur, who used “In All My Wildest Dreams” on his “Dear Mama” album.
He was a session player, too, working with artists including Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and Quincy Jones, according to a 2011 profile in the Houston Chronicle...
Here's THE LINK to the Crusaders' Wikipedia Page.
Street Life w/Randy Crawford (2006)
Keep That Same Old Feeling (Live In LA, 1984)
One Day I'll Fly Away (2003)
From the "One Day I'll Fly Away" YouTube page (linked above)...
...Joe Sample flew away from Houston on Septermber 12, 2014. The general public primarily knew him from the track 'Streetlife' that he composed with Will Jennings and performed with The Crusaders.
Sample reached the age of 75, and had played the piano since he was five years old.
With some classmates Sample formed The Jazz Crusaders, which later became The Crusaders. In 1979 they released their worldwide hit Streetlife, with vocals by Randy Crawford.
During his fifty-year career Sample recorded 21 solo albums. He also wrote music for several other musicians and played alongside legends Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, BB King and Joni Mitchell, to name but a few. Joe Sample became and will forever be legend of his own. May he rest in peace, God bless and comfort his loved ones...
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