9. The CrusadersFree As The Wind
I just love Joe Sample on the Fender Rhodes. Most people did not give him a lot of credit, but I think he was just a cool guy. He had his own style and I love listening to him a lot. Then when Joe Sample did a couple of solo albums, I loved those too.
[listening to ‘Nite Crawler’] That’s the bass player, playing the sax. Ah! I love the fact that Wilton Felder was a bass player and a saxophone player and I found that when listening to his solos, it was like, goddamn, that guy can play the horn so well. As much as the bass. 
There was a synergy about their playing that I loved, and then the strings. Most of the bands of this style of music, they never had strings. And then you had the big band sound behind them. They had a horn section behind them and once you put a horn section in the band and they are doing a good job, then you have got my attention. I may not like it, but I will pay attention. Okay, the lines are connecting. Oh yeah, I am loving that.
I loved quite a lot of what they did in the early days, up to the album Street Life, I thought they were cool. I had a lot of time for them. But I think they were already struggling to keep up with the demands of the industry on them. They were not selling records like they used to. And eventually we never heard any new releases anymore. That [Free As The Wind] is 1977, check that out, that is something!
The whole album is a joy and I recommend it on a Sunday, when you are in the kitchen, you are getting the greens ready for the salad – put that album on! And then you put the green beans in, the kidney beans, put it in that salad and get ready to toss it. Happy go lucky, let’s do this, man. Then get the white meats that you want to grill, get it out, start to marinate to this music, and you’ll be like, woo! And then you get to the barbecue outside and you are ready to put the meat on there, by then, you should be on, track four, five…
