Very sad news of the death of the legendary jazz musician, Joe Sample aged 75.
The late Sample wrote a wealth of classic hits, some of his greatest work includes 70’s hit “Streetlife” and “One Day I’ll Fly”.
Tributes to the star have flooded social media over the past couple of days as fans grieve the loss of a legend.
British musician, Kirk Degiorgio, paid homage to the star on Twitter saying, “RIP Joe Sample – one of the most iconic sessionists of the West Coast scene. So many classic riffs, hooks and accompaniment…”
Gilles Peterson paid tribute to the late Sample on Instagram, sharing a picture of the ‘’Freedom Sound” LP from The Jazz Crusaders, captioned ‘RIP Joe Sample’. See the tribute here:
http://instagram.com/p/s7XfKeo4kr/?modal=true
Fellow jazz musician Brain Culbertson paid tribute the jazz legend on Twitter with simple message saying, “Thank you Joe for inspiring us to ‘groove’ harder”.
For those wishing to pay their respects to the legend, this was posted onto the Joe Sample FaceBook pager yesterday.
“Services for Joe Sample: Friday, September 19, 2014, 6:00pm-9:00pm, wake and viewing open to the general public, My Mother of Mercy Church, 4000 Sumpter St., Houston, TX, 77020. Funeral services will be private. In lieu of flowers, etc., the family asks to make donations to the Joe Sample Youth Organization, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit. Contributions can be made via paypal/credit card using the following link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QV5AUC3H6AGQL or via check to the following address: Joe Sample Youth Organization, P.O. Box 590254, Houston, TX 77259.”
My greatest memory of Sample is of his iconic work with The Crusaders. He was a fantastic writer and truly a legendary musician.