Joe Sample
Sample in 2008
Background information
Born	Joseph Leslie Sample (1939-02-01)February 1, 1939 Houston, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 12, 2014(2014-09-12) (aged 75) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Jazz fusion,soul jazz,crossover jazz,jazz
Occupations	Musician, composer, songwriter
Instruments	Keyboards, vocals
Years active	1950s–2014
Labels	Blue Thumb,MCA,GRP,Warner Bros.,Verve,ABC

Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939^[1] – September 12, 2014)^[2] was an Americanjazz keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members ofThe Jazz Crusaders in 1960, whose name was shortened to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991, and also the 2003 reunion albumRural Renewal.

Beginning in the late 1960s, he saw a successful solo career and guested on several recordings by other acts, includingMiles Davis,George Benson,Jimmy Witherspoon,Michael Franks,B. B. King,Eric Clapton,Steely Dan,Joni Mitchell,Anita Baker, Herb Alpert, andThe Supremes. Sample incorporatedgospel,blues,jazz,latin, andclassical forms into his music.

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Sample was born inHouston, Texas,^[1] the youngest son of Alexander Sample, a mail-carrier, and Agatha (née Osborne) Sample, a seamstress. Sample began to play the piano at the age of five. 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 saxophonistWilton Felder and drummer"Stix" Hooper to form a group called the Swingsters. While studying piano atTexas Southern University, Sample met and added trombonistWayne Henderson and several other players to the Swingsters, which became the Modern Jazz Sextet and then theJazz Crusaders,^[3] in emulation of one of the leading progressive jazz bands of the day,Art Blakey'sJazz Messengers. Sample never took a degree from the university; instead, in 1960, he and the Jazz Crusaders made the move from Houston toLos Angeles. He was a member ofPhi Beta Sigma fraternity.

The group quickly found opportunities on the West Coast, making its first recording,Freedom Sound, in 1961 and releasing up to four albums a year over much of the 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders played at first in the dominanthard bop style of the day, standing out by virtue of their unusual front-line combination of saxophone (played byWilton 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^[4] in the late 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders became a strong concert draw during those years.

While Sample and his bandmates 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.^[3] 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 byJoni Mitchell,Marvin Gaye,Miles Davis,B. B. King,Randy Crawford,George Benson,Joe Cocker, Herb Alpert, Michael Franks,Anita Baker (1994) andSteely Dan.^[5] Sample was a founding member of theL.A. Express, which was started as the backing band forTom Scott; however, both Sample and fellow CrusaderLarry Carlton left after that group's first album. In 1975, Sample went into the studio with bassistRay Brown and drummerShelly Manne to produce a then state-of-the-art recording direct to disc titledThe Three. About this time,Blue Note Records reissued some of the early work by the Jazz Crusaders asThe Young Rabbits. This was a compilation of their recordings produced between 1962 and 1968.

The electric keyboard was fairly new in the 1960s, 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 thealbum of the same name in 1979. He releasedSwing Street Café with R&B guitaristDavid T. Walker in 1981.

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

After Sample'sFancy Dance (1969), he recorded several solo albums, includingSample This, produced byGeorge Duke.

GRP also releasedJoe Sample Collection, and a three-discCrusaders Collection, as testament to Sample's enduring legacy. Some of the pianist's recent recordings areThe Song Lives On (1999), featuring duets with singerLalah Hathaway, andThe Pecan Tree (2002), a tribute to his hometown of Houston, where he relocated in 1994. His 2004 album on Verve,Soul Shadows, paid tribute toDuke Ellington andJelly Roll Morton, and pre-jazz bandleaderJames Reese Europe. In 2007, he recordedFeeling Good with vocalistRandy Crawford. In the mid-1970s, the Crusaders added guitarist Larry Carlton.

Sample appeared on stage at theWaterfront Hall inBelfast, Northern Ireland, on 28 May 2000, playing keyboard solo onGeorge Benson's "Deeper Than You Think". This concert was recorded and a DVD entitledGeorge 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 that took the titleAbsolute Benson.

Some of Sample's works were featured onThe 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 theBaz Luhrmann filmMoulin Rouge! (2001). The popular "In All My Wildest Dreams", also from the 1978 albumRainbow Seeker, was sampled onTupac's "Dear Mama",De La Soul's "WRMS's Dedication to the Bitty",Toni Braxton's "What's Good" andArrested Development's "Africa's Inside Me".^{[citation needed]}

Sample died ofmesothelioma in Houston, Texas, at the age of 75. At the time of his death, Sample had been working on a project, "Quadroon," with singer-songwriterJonatha Brooke.^[6]

Joe Sample wasCatholic, and supported Catholic charities and churches throughout his life.^[7]

His son, bassist Nicklas Sample, was a member of the Coryell Auger Sample Trio featuringJulian Coryell and Karma Auger.^{[2][8][9][10]}

• Freedom Sound (Pacific Jazz, 1961)
• Lookin' Ahead (Pacific Jazz, 1962)
• The Jazz Crusaders at the Lighthouse (Pacific Jazz, 1962)
• Tough Talk (Pacific Jazz, 1963)
• Heat Wave (Pacific Jazz, 1963)
• Jazz Waltz (Pacific Jazz, 1963) withLes McCann
• Stretchin' Out (Pacific Jazz, 1964)
• The Thing (Pacific Jazz, 1965)
• Chile Con Soul (Pacific Jazz, 1965)
• Live at the Lighthouse '66 (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
• Talk That Talk (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
• The Festival Album (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
• Uh Huh (Pacific Jazz, 1967)
• Lighthouse '68 (Pacific Jazz, 1968)
• Powerhouse (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
• Lighthouse '69 (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
• Give Peace a Chance (Liberty, 1970)
• Old Socks New Shoes – New Socks Old Shoes (Chisa, 1970)
• Pass the Plate (Chisa, 1971)
• Hollywood (MoWest, 1972)
• Crusaders 1 (Blue Thumb, 1972)
• The 2nd Crusade (Blue Thumb, 1973)
• Unsung Heroes (Blue Thumb, 1973)
• Scratch (Blue Thumb, 1974)
• Southern Comfort (Blue Thumb, 1974)
• Chain Reaction (ABC/Blue Thumb, 1975)
• Those Southern Knights (ABC/Blue Thumb, 1976)
• Free as the Wind (ABC/Blue Thumb, 1977)
• Images (ABC/Blue Thumb, 1978)
• Street Life (MCA, 1979)
• Rhapsody and Blues (MCA, 1980)
• Standing Tall (MCA, 1981)
• Ongaku Kai - Live in Japan (Crusaders, 1981; GRP, 1993)
• Royal Jam (MCA, 1982) withB.B. King
• Ghetto Blaster (MCA, 1984)
• The Good and the Bad Times (MCA, 1986)
• Life in the Modern World (MCA, 1988)
• Healing the Wounds (GRP, 1991)
• Rural Renewal (Verve, 2003)

With CreoleJoe Band

• CreoleJoe Band (PRA, 2013)

• Put It Where Yo Want It (1972)
• Time Bomb (1974)
• Street Life (1979)
• Soul Shadows (1980)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJoe Sample.

• Joe Sample discography atDiscogs
• Joe Sample biography atVerve Records
• Joe Sample atIMDb
• Joe Sample atFind a Grave

• 1939 births
• 2014 deaths
• African-American pianists
• American jazz pianists
• American male jazz pianists
• Smooth jazz pianists
• American organists
• American male organists
• 20th-century American keyboardists
• Musicians from Houston
• Deaths from mesothelioma in the United States
• Deaths from cancer in Texas
• 20th-century American pianists
• Blue Thumb Records artists
• ABC Records artists
• GRP Records artists
• Warner Records artists
• Verve Records artists
• MCA Records artists
• 21st-century American keyboardists
• The Crusaders (jazz fusion group) members
• L.A. Express members
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American male musicians
• African-American Catholics
• 20th-century African-American musicians
• 21st-century African-American musicians

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