JAZZ
CRUSADERS
At the Lighthouse '68
Pacific Jazz
The Jazz Crusaders’ work for the Pacific
Jazz label from 1961 to 1969 was so consistent that there’s
material in the vaults to keep fans of soul-jazz happy well
into the future. Lighthouse ’68 was something like
the fourth live recording the group did for the label at
the Hermosa Beach club. Here the band is very much at the
top of their form, playing a still basically jazz style
that is tinged with soul, gospel, blues, and R&B.
The opener, “Oogo-Boo-Ga-Loo”
is a slinky blues boogaloo that the group really takes off
on. With Buster Williams recently rotated into the group’s
changing bass chair, the rhythm section is an awesome force,
with Stix Hooper’s tasty groove-based drum work and
Sample’s often simple yet so elegant piano playing.
And it’s the little things that these guys do naturally
that set them so far apart from other groups of the day.
For example, listen as Wayne Henderson picks up the tambourine
during Wilton Felder’s tenor solo, and listen to the
varied rhythms he establishes. The tambourine isn’t
just ‘busy work’ for Henderson, it’s a
chance to push the song’s groove a little harder.
The group’s take on “Eleanor Rigby” is
both deep South soul and Latin sophistication wrapped in
a single, spotlessly-executed performance.
“Never Had It So Good” is a Joe
Sample composition with a groove so organic that it is hard
to believe there was a time when it didn’t exist.
In this respect it has something in common with Joe Zawinul’s
work with Cannonball Adderley, and Felder’s solo here
sounds a bit like Adderley as well. Buster Williams’
compositional abilities meant that everyone within the group
could write and arrange. Williams’ contributions here
are the most progressive jazz pieces and they truly add
another dimension to the group’s stylistic bag of
tricks. “Native Dancer” is a cooker that allows
the band to break out its straight ahead jazz chops. You
can hear that these guys were a great jazz combo, but coming
from the Houston area they were profoundly influenced by
a variety of music, including R&B, soul, gospel, Latin,
and even Cajun. These influences simply couldn’t be
suppressed, and why should they be? The beauty of this era
of Crusaders music is that they were very un-self-consciousness
about mixing styles; it was a fairly natural thing, not
something rigorously planned beforehand. The original recording
concludes with an amazing run through John Coltrane’s
modal “Impressions” at a breakneck tempo. It
again serves to remind the listener of how great a group
of musicians these guys were (and are) and how well they
played together.
The reissue features four bonus tracks. Wayne
Henderson’s “Cathy the Cooker” is a slightly
tropical vibe on which Henderson solos liberally and effectively.
“Shadows,” a gorgeous ballad, is another Buster
Williams composition that demonstrates the sheer beauty
with which these guys could play. “Tough Talk”
is a nice groove that digs in its heels and doesn’t
let go, heard here in a much-extended version over its studio
recording. Closing out the reissue is Felder’s “Third
Principle,” a straight-ahead swinger with some masterful
solo work from Sample.
