Randy Crawford & Joe Sample Receive Grammy Nomination for Best Jazz Vocal | 2010
JAZZY SOUL GREATS RANDY CRAWFORD AND JOE SAMPLE RECEIVE GRAMMY NOMINATION FOR
BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM
The subtly powerful musical marriage produces No Regrets,
the duo’s sophomore set of eclectic interpretations
After more than 30 years of superlative collaborations in the studio and on the stage, contemporary jazz masters Randy Crawford and Joe Sample have been recognized for a musical simpatico rarely seen in modern music. No Regrets, the duo’s latest effort, has received a Grammy® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
The collection is the follow-up to 2007’s critically acclaimed Grammy® nominated Feeling Good, which peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s
Contemporary Jazz Chart and spurred a successful tour around the world.
With Sample’s stylish, uncluttered arrangements and Crawford’s
bell-clear, soul-drenched vocals, fans couldn’t get enough and demanded
more.
Like the 2006 collaboration, No Regrets
is a colorfully eclectic set of songs from various genres. The palette
includes shades of Southern soul, big band jazz, pop-rock, even French
pop. But no matter the song choice – whether it’s the Staple Singers (“Respect Yourself”) and early Aretha (“Today I Sing the Blues”) or Sarah McLachlan (“Angel”) and Randy Newman (“Just One Smile”) – each cut is rendered in a cozy, intimate style. Backed by a trio including Sample on piano, Steve Gadd on drums and Christian McBride
on bass, Crawford emboldens the lyrics and melodies with a stirring
combination of sensitivity and directness. Sample’s open arrangements
leave ample room for her to float and soar.
The two first collaborated back in 1976 on Everything Must Change,
Crawford’s woefully underrated debut on Warner Bros. Three years later,
their musical union produced an international smash, the classic
11-minute epic “Street Life.” The song was credited to Joe’s group the Crusaders with Crawford on vocals. In 1980, the group returned the favor and produced one of the Georgia singer’s best albums, Now We May Begin, for which Sample wrote the arrangements. Off and on through the years, Sample and Crawford continued to work together.
But Feeling Good
was the first collaboration for which they shared the billing. The
years had been kind to both artists: Sample’s deceptively simple
approach became freer and punchier while Crawford’s voice, like a fine
merlot, acquired a smooth richness. And both artists still infused
their work with a remarkable sense of youth and power. It was better late than never, and Feeling Good stood out as one of the finest contemporary jazz releases of 2006. With selections originally made famous by the likes of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Nancy Wilson, Crawford still managed to stamp each tune with a poignant, buoyant style all her own.
Crawford and Sample are supreme musical storytellers, and that’s even more apparent on No Regrets. Just as they did on Feeling Good, the two handpicked the material with legendary producer Tommy LiPuma, whom Sample and Crawford know very well. They have worked with LiPuma individually and collectively for more than 30 years.
About No Regrets, Sample says, “Randy and I wanted to keep this recording on more of the rhythm and blues side of jazz.
And as always, we wanted to pick songs that nobody else records. The
process was very methodical. …When we found something we both liked,
the next step was, ‘What can we do to make these arrangements interesting to us? If we can do that, then we can get other people interested.’”
And indeed he did. No Regrets entered the Top 10 on Billboard’s
Jazz Album Chart, peaking at No. 8. And now with a Grammy nomination,
the industry has finally taken notice of two musical wonders who, after
all these years, still find marvelous ways to turn a lyric and a melody
Inque PR