The Crusaders
Biographie The Crusaders
The Crusaders
In 1961, four fellows from Houston transplanted themselves to Los Angeles and added more distinctly bluesy elements to the soul jazz style with an ear-grabbing album called The Freedom Sound on the Pacific Jazz label. The band, which had been known in turn as the Swingsters, the Modern Jazz Sextet, and the Nighthawks, was now named the Jazz Crusaders. Its four co-leaders were trombonist Wayne Henderson, tenor saxophonist (and occasional bassist) Wilton Felder, pianist Joe Sample, and drummer Nesbert "Stix" Hooper.
The Jazz Crusaders sound caught on big time, and their subsequent Pacific Jazz albums rewarded them with a good deal of exposure. The band performed regularly and got plenty of airplay. One of its signature pieces, the rollickingly fast "Young Rabbits," was even used as the musical background for a Ford Mustang TV commercial.
But as times changed, so did the Jazz Crusaders. In the late Sixties, they placed such popular numbers as the Beatles’ "Eleanor Rigby" and "Get Back" in their repertoire, and firm backbeats began to bolster many a selection. By 1971, they decided that the word "jazz" kept them from attracting a wider listener base, and so they emerged anew with The Crusaders, Vol. 1 (Chisa), an album that openly infused jazz with pop, soul, and r&b elements.
If the Jazz Crusaders had achieved some degree of popularity, it was nothing like the crossover success that greeted the Crusaders. Such albums as Scratch, Southern Comfort, Chain Reaction, Those Southern Knights, Free as the Wind, Images, Street Life, and Royal Jam (recorded variously for the Chisa, ABC Blue Thumb, and MCA labels) sold well and brought in a deluge of new fans. Street Life’s title track provided the Crusaders with a Billboard top forty hit, reaching no. 36 in 1979.
The Crusaders’ popularity started to fade in the early Eighties, prompted by Henderson’s departure. Hooper then left as well, and by the early Nineties Sample and Felder had disbanded the group. A few years later, Henderson and Felder began performing together, first as the New Crusaders and, more recently, as the Jazz Crusaders.
Excerpted from The Crusaders’ Finest Hour 314 543 762-2 (Zan Stewart).
