Joe Sample

Joe Sample belonged to the generation of jazz musicians who began in the hard-bop idiom yet embraced electric instruments once the fusion movement gained momentum. During the late 1950s he helped form the Jazz Crusaders in Los Angeles alongside trombonist Wayne Henderson, tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder, and drummer Stix Hooper. Although the group clearly drew from the model of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, its lack of a trumpeter distinguished it, and the unit became recognized for the distinctive front line of tenor saxophone and trombone. A forceful, swinging pianist equally at home with chordal statements and modal or scalar explorations, Sample remained on acoustic piano throughout the Crusaders’ formative period. When the ensemble shifted toward jazz-funk in the early 1970s and removed “Jazz” from its title, he began to favor electric keyboards more prominently. He had already led a trio date on the little-known 1969 album Fancy Dance, yet Rainbow Seeker, issued in 1978, is frequently cited as his debut proper under his own name. On his subsequent releases for MCA and, later, Warner Bros. and PRA, Sample cultivated a reflective, melody-driven jazz-pop style that stood in marked contrast to the harder-edged sound associated with the Crusaders. He succumbed to mesothelioma in Houston, Texas, during September 2014 at the age of seventy-five. The following year saw the posthumous appearance of his seasonal collaboration with vocalist India.Arie, Christmas with Friends.