With the esteemed jazz/funk/fusion band the Crusaders as a guide, one could trace the rise and fall of commercial jazz in all in many of its permutations. The core group that is the most recognized ...

Most people think that when the Jazz Crusaders dropped the "Jazz" from their name, they also dropped the jazz from their playing. When the band first decided to call themselves the Crusaders, it was ...

Legendary jazz/fusion pianist Joe Sample has died at the age of 75. According to a Facebook post by his wife and son, the native of Houston passed on Friday night, but a specific cause has not been ...

Wayne Henderson, trombonist and co-founding member of the popular jazz-funk band The Jazz Crusaders (later known as The Crusaders), died Friday, April 4, in Culver City, Calif. The cause of death was ...

Pianist and composer Joe Sample, a founding member of the genre-crossing Jazz Crusaders who helped pioneer the electronic jazz-funk fusion style, has died. He was 75. Mr. Sample died of complications ...

The Jazz Crusaders have scheduled a three-night stand at Anthology this month. The prolific collective -- known for their signature blend of jazz, soul and pop -- has been making music for nearly 50 ...

Trombonist Wayne Henderson - a co-founder of the bebop ensemble the Jazz Crusaders and the popular jazz-soul fusion band the Crusaders - died April 5 of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, his ...

We remember jazz pianist and composer Joe Sample. The longtime Houstonian died Friday at the age of 75. Sample became well known in the 1960s as the pianist for the Jazz Crusaders, who eventually ...

When Joe Sample (piano), Wilton Felder (saxophone) and Wayne Henderson (trombone) moved from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles to begin their collective recording career, they called their band The Jazz ...

Black History Month is always a great time to recall some of Houston’s greatest musical innovators and leaders. Rocks Off will highlight some of them during the remainder of February. “Hey, let’s get ...

"Fusion" wasn't in the jazz vocabulary when this influential group was active in the 1960s and 70s; it was formed by a group of Texas school-friends led by pianist Joe Sample in 1954, and became one ...