By 1977, the individual members of the Crusaders were so successful that the pressure to record two albums a year no longer applied. There was no new Crusaders album in 1977, but that doesn't mean the members weren't working, and working hard.
Trombonist Wayne Henderson was trying his hand at producing records, Stix Hooper could play anytime anywhere he wanted to, and Wilton Felder's career was in overdrive as he stepped up his session work with the bass guitar and his saxophone.
Meanwhile, Joe Sample kept on keeping on, working some very high-profile sessions in Los Angeles. While 1977 was not a banner year like 1975 and '76, he would end the year with one of the most significant sessions of his career, playing on Steely Dan's Aja.
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Lamont Dozier, Peddlin' Music on the Side Dozier, one of Motown's hit-writing machines, brought in Sample and Felder to jazz up his second release for Warner Bros. Here he works in a wider sonic range than most Motown releases, and is in top form on tunes like "Going Back To My Roots," which was helped along by Hugh Masakela's arrangement and Sample's keyboard wizardry.
A man of many moods and tempos, Dozier mixes it up nicely with Sample and Felder anchoring the sessions. With Ray Parker, Jr. and David T. Walker in the talent mix, this one at times takes on the Crusaders-at-the-disco feel.
Shawn Phillips, Spaced A tall Texan and part of that monumental Class of 1943 out of Fort Worth, Phillips was once called the best kept secret in the music business by promoter Bill Graham. Phillips was living in London during the early Flower Power era and recorded with Donovan and the Beatles, ran the streets with the Stones and other British musical luminaries; he and George Harrison shared a keen interest in the sitar.
Another huge star-studded A&M Records session, Spaced tanked and went absolutely nowhere. It was finally reissued on CD in 2013.
Wah-Wah Watson, Eye of the Beholder Mervin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin, who spent years toiling in the session rooms of Los Angeles and playing on albums by an array of artists just as wide as Sample's own, was finally given a shot to record his own album by Columbia. He went straight to the deepest well for talents such as Sample, Ray Parker, Jr., and Felder to record what was billed as a jazz fusion record, jazz fusion being a big buzz at that time.
Commercially, the album was a horrible flop, but it stands up very well over time and is really more funk than fusion, having more in common with Sly Stone than with Steely Dan.
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