It's a slight exaggeration to say that keyboardist Joe Sample rescued Randy Crawford from pop music limbo, but it's not too far from the truth. Crawford is among the most distinct vocalists working, ...

Joe Sample is many things: a celebrated jazz artist, a supreme pianist and keyboardist, a skilled composer. But it’s his collaborative prowess that fascinates me. A good collaborator must strike a ...

Tap the share button (the square icon with the up arrow) in the tab bar below. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen. Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, ...

Some of the key players in Joe Sample’s new release, Soul Shadows (Verve), are construction workers. The veteran keyboardist built a house in Houston last year, and one of the aims was to create a ...

Throughout his long keyboard career, both as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders and as a solo artist, Joe Sample believed that “if you played the piano in a stride or ragtime or boogie-woogie ...

Joe Sample died and was laid to rest nearly three years ago. The Houston jazz legend had survived a pair of heart attacks, one in 1994 and another in 2009. But mesothelioma took him in Sept. 2014 at ...

Since legendary keyboardist Joe Sample returned home to Houston eight years ago, he has reconnected with his musical past. Sample reunited the Jazz Crusaders for a show in 2011, after the band had ...

Nesbert “Stix” Hooper returns home this week for the first time in maybe 20 years. He thinks the last time he was here was for a class reunion at Phillis Wheatley High School. The legendary drummer ...

Veteran jazz pianist Joe Sample, a founder and staple of the much-lauded innovative combo the (Jazz) Crusaders for four decades, takes a long overdue solo turn with a six-day gig at Gotham's Blue Note ...