Joe Sample

Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) was an American pianist, keyboard player, and composer. He was one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply the Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 (not including the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal).

Joe Sample
Sample in 2008
Background information
Birth nameJoseph Leslie Sample
Born(1939-02-01)February 1, 1939
Houston, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 12, 2014(2014-09-12) (aged 75)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, composer
InstrumentsPiano, keyboards
Years active1950s–2014
LabelsBlue Thumb, MCA, GRP, Warner Bros., Verve, ABC
Associated actsJazz Crusaders, Steely Dan, Michael Franks, Lalah Hathaway, India.Arie

Beginning in the 1970s, he enjoyed a successful solo career and guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Anita Baker, and the Supremes. Sample incorporated jazz, gospel, blues, Latin, and classical forms into his music.

Biography

Sample was born in Houston, Texas, on February 1, 1939, the youngest son of Alexander Sample, a mail-carrier, and Agatha (née Osborne) Sample, a seamstress. Sample began to play the piano at age 5. He was a student of the organist and pianist (Theodore or T.) Curtis Mayo.

In high school in the 1950s, Sample teamed up with friends saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer "Stix" Hooper to form a group called the Swingsters. While studying piano at Texas Southern University, Sample met and added trombonist Wayne Henderson and several other players to the Swingsters, which became the Modern Jazz Sextet and then the Jazz Crusaders,[1] in emulation of one of the leading progressive jazz bands of the day, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Sample never took a degree from the university; instead, in 1960, he and the Jazz Crusaders made the move from Houston to Los Angeles. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

The group quickly found opportunities on the West Coast, making its first recording, Freedom Sounds in 1961 and releasing up to four albums a year over much of the 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders played at first in the dominant hard bop style of the day, standing out by virtue of their unusual front-line combination of saxophone (played by Wilton Felder) and Henderson's trombone. Another distinctive quality was the funky, rhythmically appealing acoustic piano playing of Sample, who helped steer the group's sound into a fusion between jazz and soul[2] in the late 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders became a strong concert draw during those years.

While Sample and his band mates continued to work together, he and the other band members pursued individual work as well. In 1969 Sample made his first recording under his own name; Fancy Dance featured the pianist as part of a jazz trio.[1] In the 1970s, as the Jazz Crusaders became simply the Crusaders and branched out into popular sounds, Sample became known as a Los Angeles studio musician, appearing on recordings by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, B. B. King, Joe Cocker, Minnie Riperton, Anita Baker and The Supremes. In 1975 he went into the studios with jazz legends Ray Brown on bass, and drummer Shelly Manne to produce a then state-of-the-art recording direct to disc entitled The Three. About this time Blue Note Records reissued some of the early work by the Jazz Crusaders as "The Young Rabbits". This was a compilation of their recordings done between 1962 and 1968.

The electric keyboard was fairly new in the sixties, and Sample became one of the instrument's pioneers. He began to use the electric piano while the group retained their original name, and the group hit a commercial high-water mark with the hit single "Street Life" and the album of the same name in 1979. In 1978 he recorded Swing Street Café with guitarist David T. Walker.

The Crusaders, after losing several key members, broke up after recording Life in the Modern World for the GRP label in 1987. Despite the disbanding of the Crusaders, the members would join each other to record periodically over the years, releasing Healing the Wounds in the early 1990s. Felder, Hooper, and Sample recorded their first album, called Rural Renewal, as the reunited Crusaders group in 2003 and played a concert in Japan in 2004.

After Sample's A Fancy Dance (1969), he recorded several solo albums, including Sample This, produced by George Duke.

GRP also released Joe Sample Collection, and a three-disc Crusaders Collection, as testament to Sample's enduring legacy. Some of the pianist's recent recordings are The Song Lives On (1999), featuring duets with singer Lalah Hathaway, and The Pecan Tree (2002), a tribute to his hometown of Houston, where he relocated in 1994. His 2004 album on Verve, Soul Shadows, paid tribute to Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, and pre-jazz bandleader James Reese Europe. In 2007 he recorded Feeling Good with vocalist Randy Crawford. In the mid-seventies, Crusaders added guitarist Larry Carlton.

Sample appeared on stage at The Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 28 May 2000, playing keyboard solo on George Benson's Deeper Than You Think. This concert was recorded and a DVD entitled George Benson: Absolutely Live was subsequently released. A studio version of Deeper Than You Think was recorded featuring Joe Sample in New York in May 1999 during sessions for a Benson collection which took the title Absolutely Benson. Fans again believe there may have been other collaborations of Sample - Benson which remain in the vaults unreleased.

Some of his works were featured on The Weather Channel's "Local on the 8s" segments and his song "Rainbow Seeker" is included in their 2008 compilation release, The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II. Nicole Kidman sang his song "One Day I'll Fly Away" in the Baz Luhrmann film Moulin Rouge! The very popular "In All My Wildest Dreams", also from the 1978 album Rainbow Seeker, was sampled on Tupac's "Dear Mama", De la Soul's "WRMS's Dedication to the Bitty", Toni Braxton's "What's Good" and Arrested Development's "Africa's Inside Me".

Sample died of mesothelioma in Houston, Texas, at the age of 75. His survivors included his son, bassist Nicklas Sample (with ex-wife Marianne), who is a member of the Coryell Auger Sample Trio featuring Julian Coryell and Karma Auger.[3][4][5][6]

At the time of his death, Sample had been working on a project, "Quadroon," with singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke.[7]

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Joe Sample among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[8]

Discography
Joe Sample in Paris, 1978

As leader
TitleYearLabel
Fancy Dance [originally titled Try Us]1969Gazell
The Three (with Ray Brown, Shelly Manne)1976East Wind
Rainbow Seeker1978ABC/MCA; Blue Thumb
Carmel1979ABC/MCA; Blue Thumb
Voices in the Rain1981MCA Jazz
Swing Street Cafe (with David T. Walker)1981Crusaders; Verve
The Hunter1983MCA Jazz
Oasis1985MCA Jazz
Roles1987MCA Jazz
Spellbound1989Warner Bros.
Ashes to Ashes1990Warner Bros.
Invitation1993Warner Bros.
Did You Feel That?1994Warner Bros.
Old Places Old Faces1996Warner Bros.
Sample This1997Warner Bros.
The Song Lives On (with Lalah Hathaway)1999GRP
The Pecan Tree2002Verve
Soul Shadows2004Verve
Creole Love Call (with Nils Landgren)2006ACT
Feeling Good (with Randy Crawford & Steve Gadd)2007PRA
No Regrets (with Randy Crawford & Steve Gadd)2009PRA
Live (with Randy Crawford, Steve Gadd & Nicklas Sample)2012PRA
Children of the Sun (with NDR Big band & Steve Gadd)2014PRA
Christmas with Friends (with India Arie)2015Motown

With The (Jazz) Crusaders

With CreoleJoe Band

  • CreoleJoe Band (PRA, 2013)

As sideman

With Gene Ammons

With Kenny Burrell

With Michael Franks

With Richard "Groove" Holmes

With Milt Jackson

With Al Jarreau

With B.B. King

With Cher

With Rod Stewart

With Natalie Cole

With Jerry Butler

  • Power Of Love (Mercury Records, 1973)

With Marvin Gaye

With B.B. King and Eric Clapton

With Harold Land

With Minnie Riperton

With Bobby Hutcherson

With Paul Anka

  • The Painter (United Artists Records, 1976)

With Boz Scaggs

With George Benson

With Carmen McRae

With Joan Baez

With Tina Turner

With Brenda Russell

  • Get Here (A&M Records, 1988)

With Melissa Manchester

With Blue Mitchell

With Joni Mitchell

With Dion DiMucci

With Ringo Starr

With Martha Reeves

  • Martha Reeves (MCA Records, 1974)

With Albert King

  • Albert (Tomato Records, 1976)
  • Truckload of Lovin' (Tomato Records, 1976)

With Lalo Schifrin

With Michael Franks

With Randy Crawford

  • Everything Must Change (Warner Bros. Records, 1976)
  • Now We May Begin (Warner Bros. Records, 1980)
  • Through The Eyes of Love (Warner Bros. Records, 1992)
  • Feeling Good (Emarcy, 2006)
  • No Regrets (Emarcy, 2008)

With Solomon Burke

  • Electronic Magnetism (MGM, 1971)

With Eric Clapton

With Gloria Jones

With Johnny Rivers

  • Outside Help (Big Tree Records, 1977)

With The Rippingtons

With Sonny & Cher

With Anita Baker

With Steely Dan

With Stanley Turrentine

With Dusty Springfield

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References
  1. Henderson, Alex. "Joe Sample Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  2. Berendt, Joachim E (1976). The Jazz Book. Paladin. p. 387.
  3. Keepnews, Peter (September 14, 2014). "Joe Sample, Crusaders Pianist Who Went Electric, Dies at 75". The New York Times. p. D10.
  4. "Jazz-funk pioneer Joe Sample dies at 75". The Washington Post. Associated Press. September 13, 2014.
  5. Chawkins, Steve (September 14, 2014). "Joe Sample dies at 75; jazz-funk keyboardist founded the Crusaders". Los Angeles Times.
  6. Khatchatourian, Maane (September 13, 2014). "Joe Sample, Iconic Jazz Pianist, Dies at 75". Variety. ISSN 0042-2738.
  7. "Squared Roots: Jonatha Brooke on the rhythm and groove of Joe Sample". The Bluegrass Situation. November 9, 2016.
  8. Rosen, Jody (June 25, 2019). "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  9. "Prestige Records Catalog Series 10000". Jazzdisco.org. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  10. "'Round Midnight Kenny Burrell". Concordmusicgroup.com. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  11. "Riding with the King - B.B. King, Eric Clapton - Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
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