The Crusaders

In 1954 Houston pianist Joe Sample joined forces with his high-school companions, tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer Stix Hooper, to launch the Swingsters. Shortly afterward trombonist Wayne Henderson, flutist Hubert Laws, and bassist Henry Wilson came aboard, prompting the ensemble to adopt the name Modern Jazz Sextet. When Sample, Felder, Hooper, and Henderson relocated to Los Angeles in 1960, the remaining unit—now a quintet whose bass chair turned over frequently—began performing as the Jazz Crusaders. The following year the group cut its debut sides for Pacific Jazz, and throughout the 1960s it enjoyed widespread popularity by blending R&B and Memphis soul textures with hard bop; the trombone-and-tenor front line served as its signature sound. By 1971 the musicians, each increasingly occupied with separate endeavors, elected to drop the word “Jazz” so the band would no longer be confined to that idiom. Several strong albums appeared in the first half of the decade, bolstered by the contributions of guitarist Larry Carlton, before the overall quality began to slip. Henderson’s departure in 1975 to concentrate on production work triggered a sharp stylistic shift. The 1979 album “Street Life” scored a commercial success yet marked the final peak. Hooper’s exit in 1983 left the remaining members sounding unlike the Crusaders of old, and the project slowly dissolved. In the mid-1990s Henderson and Felder briefly reconvened under the Crusaders banner, yet only Sample sustained a significant solo trajectory.