Musician, composer Joe Sample

Musician, composer Joe Sample

SANTA MONICA (CNS) – Joe Sample, an iconic jazz and keyboard artists and
composer whose music transcended genres and defied easy labels, has died at
age 75, his family reported Saturday.

Sample split his time between residences in Santa Monica, Mammoth Lakes
and his native Houston. His death was first reported on his Twitter feed, and
then confirmed by family members.

He was a founder of two seminal Los Angeles jazz bands, the Modern Jazz
Sextet and the Jazz Crusaders. In the late 1970s, the Jazz Crusaders
transitioned into a blend of funk, soul and jazz, renamed itself the Crusaders
and became a mainstay on smooth jazz stations like KTWV in Los Angeles and KIFM in San Diego.
Sample also recorded with B.B. King, Steely Dan and the Supremes.

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