The Jazz Crusaders Freedom Sound / Lookin' Ahead / At the Lighthouse (3-CD)

Sheer pleasure ahead is the only way to describe the musical message delivered by the Jazz Crusaders during the early years of their career. A tightly knit group of like-minded souls, they brought fresh listeners to a genre that once risked drifting too far away from public tastes. Without compromising their art, they played with fire, soul and feeling, while keeping the tunes cool and the beat irresistible. As The Crusaders they embraced funk, pop and soul during the 1970s, reaching out to a wider audience. But they started life as a hard bop group, and it is this aspect of their music that we hear on the three classic albums comprising this CD set.