American keyboard player and composer Joe Sample passed away on September 12, 2014. He was one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, a group that evolved into a pioneering fusion and jazz funk band called The Crusaders in 1971.
Joseph Leslie “Joe” Sample was born on February 1, 1939 in Houston, Texas. He learned to play piano at age five. His musical roots included gospel, soul, bebop, blues, Latin, and classical music. Although he played hard bop in the 1960s, he went electric during the fusion era.
Sample played acoustic piano during the Crusaders’ early years, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but began to place greater importance on electric keyboards when the band turned to jazz and funk in the early 1970s and dropped the “Jazz” from its name.
The band accumulated numerous gold and platinum albums over the course of approximately three decades. The Crusaders’ last official recording was Life in the Modern World, released in 1987. Sample and tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder released the duo album Healing the Wounds on GRP in the early 1990s, and in 2003 rejoined original Crusaders drummer Stix Hooper for a full-blown reunion that produced the hit jazz fusion album Rural Renewal, the first new album by The Crusaders in over 20 years.
While vigorously touring as a member of the Crusaders, Sample concurrently launched a successful solo career. His bestselling recordings include Rainbow Seeker, Carmel, Voices in the Rain, Spellbound, Ashes to Ashes, Invitation (a return to his bebop roots), Did You Feel That?, Old Places, Old Faces and the George Duke produced Sample This. GRP also released The Joe Sample Collection and the 3-CD Crusaders Collection as a tribute to Sample’s enduring legacy. Samples’ most recent recordings are 1999’s The Song Lives On (featuring duets with singer Lalah Hathaway), 2002’s The Pecan Tree, a tribute to his hometown of Houston; and 2004’s Soul Shadows.
In addition to his solo recordings, Sample toured and performed with numerous musical stars in all genres, including Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, BB King, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Randy Crawford, and Anita Baker.