JOE SAMPLE booking - Jazz Music Artists - Corporate Entertainment Booking

Joe Sample has entertained for more than four decades, first as a founding member of the ground-breaking fusion ensemble The Crusaders, and since the late '70's, as a popular solo contemporary jazz artist.

Sample began playing piano at age five and the Houston, Texas, native rooted himself in many different musical genres including gospel, soul, bebop, blues, Latin, and classical music. Like many jazzmen of his time, Sample started out playing hard bop, but went electric during the fusion era.

Along with trombonist Wayne Henderson, tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer Stix Hooper, Joe Sample launched The Jazz Crusaders in the late '50's. Relocating from their hometown of Houston to Los Angeles, The Jazz Crusaders, who attended Texas Southern University together, patterned themselves after Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and became renowned for their unique tenor/trombone front line.

Joe Sample focused on the acoustic piano during The Crusaders' early years, but placed greater emphasis on electric keyboards when the band turned to jazz/funk in the early '70s and dropped the "Jazz" from its name. After collecting numerous gold and platinum albums over the course of nearly three decades, The Crusaders' last official recording was "Life in the Modern World" in 1987. Sample and Felder later released "Healing the Wounds" on GRP in the early '90's.

Joe Sample, jazz music artist Though he recorded with a trio on 1969's obscure "Fancy Dance," 1978's "Rainbow Seeker" marked Sample's first official solo album as a leader. His lyrical, introspective, and highly rhythmic compositional approach celebrated the beginning of what is known today as "contemporary jazz," and since the release of "Spellbound" in 1989, his first Warner Brothers album, the pianist has become one of the most enduring artists of the genre.

His recordings include "Carmel," "Voices in the Rain," "Ashes to Ashes," "Invitation," "Did You Feel That," "Old Places Old Faces," and of course, the George Duke produced "Sample This." GRP also released "The Joe Sample Collection" and the three CD "Crusaders Collection" as a testament to Sample's enduring legacy. In addition to his own recording and touring, Joe Sample has proven a valuable studio and touring sideman over the years to numerous musical greats in all genres including Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, Randy Crawford, Anita Baker, and Andrae Crouch.

Joe Sample has toured twice with the husky voiced Lalah Hathaway, the daughter of legendary R&B singer Donny Hathaway. "Working so closely with Lalah has helped me to better appreciate her ability to convey powerful emotions in subtle ways which is not typical of so many of today's pop singers," says Sample. "I've never been a formulaic Top 40 songwriter, and usually the singers like Randy Crawford or Al Jarreau, who have done well with my tunes, are great interpreters. Lalah has those same instincts. Aside from being an incredibly positive person, she and I really seem to understand where each of us is coming from musically. She took very easily to the songs Randy had sung, and gave a lift to time-worn favorites like "Fever," which we performed in Japan, and "For All We Know."

Famed lyricist Norman Gimbel wrote whimsical words to Sample's beloved "All God's Children" (from 1989's "Spellbound") to create "Come Along With Me," another showcase for Hathaway's upbeat spirit. Sample also adds to his resume' as an instrumental composer, penning four new tracks which include the smoky title track, the subtly shaded "Living In Blue," "A Long Way From Home," and the lively, percussion driven bonus track, "Bittersweet."

Joe Sample says, "I grew up in a time and place where segregation was an acceptable way of life, and for me the piano was the only place I could run for an act of healing. I still feel that expressing myself this way is my great sanctuary. I would like my legacy to be not only that I reflected the times in which I lived, but also that my music had the power to help heal people's pain the way it has healed mine."

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