Tone Poet Society

The Jazz Crusaders officially became The Jazz Crusaders with the release of Freedom Sound, their 1961 debut on Pacific Jazz. The Houston, Texas founded band had gone through several changes—both in name and location—when they arrived in Los Angeles and eventually got their lucky break when fellow Houstonian saxophonist Curtis Amy recommended them to Pacific Jazz founder Richard Bock. Freedom Sound began a decade-long association with the label that was both prolific and tremendously successful. The blueprint of the band’s enticing sound was already firmly in place, blending jazz aspirations with R&B roots for a potent dose of hard bop, soul jazz, gospel, and Texas Blues. The band’s core members—drummer Nesbert “Stix” Hooper, pianist Joe Sample, trombonist Wayne Henderson, and tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder—are joined here by bassist Jimmy Bond and special guest Roy Gaines contributing guitar to two tracks. Highlights of the set include Felder’s opening 6/8 blues “The Geek” and Sample’s stately civil rights anthem “Freedom Sound,” which gave the album its title.

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill had already built a formidable and beguiling body of work on Blue Note by the time he recorded Grass Roots in 1968, an album that stands as one of the most immediately accessible in his prolific output for the label which spans 1963-2006. Hill’s heady brilliance was indisputably established with fiercely creative albums such as Black Fire, Point of Departure, and Judgment!, but on Grass Roots he had another idea in mind. “I’m not proving myself here,” Hill explained in the original liner notes. “I want to give something. I want to reach out from myself to make people happy who listen to this. That’s what grass roots are in music. Getting down to the basics, getting down as deep as you can into feeling.” With a quintet eminently suitable for that task—Lee Morgan on trumpet, Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Ron Carter on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums—Hill presented a set of five original compositions imbued with a deep sense of feeling, groove, and lyricism including the feel-good title track, the festive “Mira,” and the propulsive “Soul Special.”

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