Standing Tall
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Album Summary
Standing Tall landed on MCA Records in 1981, and it arrived the way only a Crusaders record could — with that unmistakable blend of jazz sophistication and street-level funk that Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, and the rest of the crew had been perfecting for over two decades. Produced by the band alongside seasoned collaborators, the album featured Sample's signature keyboard work and Felder holding it down on saxophone and bass, with guest vocalists and session players woven into the fabric of the sound. This was the Crusaders operating in full crossover mode, chasing that smooth, polished production that ruled the airwaves in the early eighties while never fully letting go of the jazz roots that made them legends in the first place. It was a record built for the urban contemporary moment — lush, warm, and undeniably soulful.
Reception
- Standing Tall performed respectably on the R&B charts, consistent with the Crusaders' well-earned standing in the soul and funk marketplace of the early 1980s.
- Critical response was generally warm among devotees of the group's jazz-funk hybrid style, though jazz purists continued to raise an eyebrow at the increasingly polished production sheen that had become the band's commercial calling card.
- The album's radio-friendly grooves helped the Crusaders hold their audience steady during a turbulent transitional moment in popular music, as disco faded into memory and the quiet storm format began to take shape.
Significance
- Standing Tall stands as a vivid document of the Crusaders occupying that sacred crossroads between jazz, funk, and smooth soul — a stylistic position that would cast a long shadow over the contemporary jazz and quiet storm formats throughout the entire decade of the eighties.
- The album mirrors the broader cultural and industry shift toward lush, keyboard-driven production that defined African American popular music in the early Reagan era, with Joe Sample's keyboards sitting at the center of that sonic world like a warm hearth on a cold night.
- The Crusaders' work on this record contributed to a groove-oriented sonic vocabulary — sophisticated yet accessible, rooted yet forward-looking — that would prove irresistible to a future generation of producers and diggers hunting for the perfect sample.
Samples
- I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today — sampled by various artists drawn to its warm soul textures and has appeared in hip-hop productions mining the Crusaders' early eighties catalog.
- This Old World's Too Funky For Me — among the tracks from this album noted for its funk-driven groove that attracted the attention of hip-hop producers sampling the Crusaders' MCA-era output.
Tracklist
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A1 Standing Tall —
6:46
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A2 I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today —
5:02
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A3 Sunshine In Your Eyes —
6:11
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B1 This Old World's Too Funky For Me —
5:25
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B2 Luchenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love) —
4:23
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B3 Longest Night —
6:24
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B4 Reprise: I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today (Instrumental) —
2:59
Artist Details
The Crusaders — originally known as the Jazz Crusaders — came together in Houston, Texas in the late 1950s, a band of brothers forged in the church and the streets, blending hard bop jazz with blues, funk, and soul into something so deep and righteous it had no choice but to become its own thing. With cats like Joe Sample on keys, Wilton Felder on saxophone, and Stix Hooper holding down the pocket on drums, they became one of the defining forces in the development of soul-jazz and funk, laying the groundwork for what folks would later call smooth jazz while always keeping that raw, earthy feeling underneath. Their 1979 smash "Street Life," featuring the incomparable Randy Crawford on vocals, brought them to the mainstream masses, but true music lovers knew long before that these cats were the real deal — session players, bandleaders, and sonic architects who shaped the sound of an era.
