****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I've VERY slowly become a Crusaders fan, starting with a Joe Sample/David T. Walker LP my good friend laid on me in the 80s. It was an instrumental LP of old R&B standards, and it was smokin'!!!! I knew that the Crusaders was Sample's steady gig, but never bothered to check them out. I thought they were either a lame fusion band or a really lame lite jazz band, and I had not interest in either. Of course all these years later, I've tried to fill out my collection, mostly with LPs for the Crusaders stuff (their MCA CDs are mastered poorly), and CDs for the Jazz Crusaders (mostly good sound, but many unavailable). Because I already had so much of their stuff, I've hesitated buying this, but I found it reasonably priced used and finally bit the bullet. It's just a great collection, and I can easily say that at 4 discs it is far too short. Nothing included from some really great LPs in the 60s (Uh Huh and Jazz Waltz with Les McCann, to name only two). They were very prolific, particularly in the 60s, and their work is remarkably consistent. If you are a fan of either jazz or R&B and can appreciate great changes, charts, chops and production, you need to do yourself a favor and pick this up. This band is one of the best jazz bands ever assembled, by any measure. They are totally underrated and underappreciated. Pick this up and see if you don't agree. It is an excellent, almost perfect, overview of their fantastic career.
