Rocks Off has just learned that Houston Press Music Hall of Famer Joe Sample is scheduled for surgery this afternoon. According to Dr. Horace Alexander Young of the Texas Southern University Jazz Studies Program, where Sample is artist in residence, Sample has been diagnosed with pneumonia.
A consummate keyboardist, Sample only recently returned from an East Coast tour with his new zydeco/R&B ensemble, the Creole Joe Zydeco Band (see video below).
Three Saturdays ago, he played his annual charity fundraiser at the Grand 1984 Opera House in Galveston.
REWIND: Houston Music Hall of Famer Creole Joe Sample Is On a New Mission
Sample, 75, was a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders (later shortened to Crusaders), one of the most internationally famous ensembles ever from Houston. Sample, who lived in Los Angeles for 40 years before returning to the Clear Lake area in 1999 after a heart attack, has been working at a hard pace this year, not only keeping up with his professorial duties at TSU but with tours of northern Europe and Japan.
Rocks Off will update this item when further information on Sample's condition is available.
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