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General Category => Huh? => Topic started by: Skipmuck on September 17, 2014, 2307 UTC

Title: JOE SAMPLE (CRUSADERS) DEAD AT 75
Post by: Skipmuck on September 17, 2014, 2307 UTC
JOE SAMPLE R.I.P. 1939-2014

Joe Sample, who became a jazz star in the 1960s as the pianist with the Jazz Crusaders and an even bigger star a decade later when he began playing electric keyboards and the group simplified its name to the Crusaders, died on September 12, 2014 in Houston. He was 75. The cause was mesothelioma (cancer of the lungs), said his manager, Patrick Rains. Among the albums on which his keyboard work can be heard are Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Tina Turner’s Private Dancer, Steely Dan’s Aja and Gaucho, and several recordings by BB King.

I had the good fortune to see him with the Crusaders opening up for the Rolling Stones in Boston Garden during the 1975 Stones tour. I had never heard of them at the time, but I was immediately impressed as soon as they started the opening number of the show. There was no question that the audience was also very impressed....they blew the walls out of the building!