Joe Sample Biography
Joseph Leslie Sample, 1 February 1939, Houston, Texas, USA. While still at high school, Sample co-founded a group that would dominate his working life. Known from 1960 as the Jazz Crusaders, the band, with its core of Sample on piano, Wayne Henderson, Wilton Felder and Nesbert "Stix" Hooper, produced a series of popular albums that helped to define the term "soul jazz". A change of name, to the Crusaders, led to a change of direction in 1972, with increasing emphasis on a soul and funk repertoire. Sample stayed with the group throughout the 70s and, in a number of re-formations, into the 80s, but throughout these periods, Sample and the other group members have maintained independent careers. Sample worked as an accompanist with the Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land quintet in 1967 and during the late 60s became a regular Motown session musician, working with artists such as Diana Ross and the Jackson Five. Further session work in Hollywood studio bands followed until, in the early 70s, Sample joined Tom Scott's group LA Express, an experience that led to more session work for many pop and folk musicians, notably Joni Mitchell. Recent interest in jazz funk of the early 70s has introduced the Crusaders to a new audience in the mid-90s, and Sample continues to produce solo works with great success. As a writer Sample's partnership with Will Jennings has been particularly fruitful. Together they wrote "Street Life" and "One Day I'll Fly Away" for Randy Crawford, and further collaborations have produced three albums of material for B.B. King.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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