Free as the Wind
Free as the Wind is a studio album by The Crusaders issued in 1977 on ABC Records.
The album reached No. 8 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart.
Critical reception
Richard S. Ginell of AllMusic, where it received four stars out of five, wrote "When the material is this good, everything falls into place from there; the grooves are deeper, the soloing by all five Crusaders is more melodic and probing, and while Sample provides a few brass and string arrangements, this is just harmless decoration, neither a necessity nor a hindrance. This would be the Crusaders' high-water mark in the post-Wayne Henderson years, and it can stand tall with anything they've done."Track listing
Adapted from album's text.Personnel
Adapted from album's text.The Crusaders
- Joe Sample – keyboards, horn and string orchestrations
- Larry Carlton – guitars
- Robert "Pops" Popwell – bass
- Stix Hooper – drums, percussion
- Wilton Felder – saxophones
- Dean Parks – guitars
- Roland Bautista – guitars
- Arthur Adams – guitars
- Ralph MacDonald – special percussion
- Paulinho da Costa – percussion
Production
- Stewart Levine – producer
- The Crusaders – associate producers
- Rik Pekkonen – engineer, mixing
- Bernie Grundman – mastering at A&M Studios
- Frank Mulvey – art direction
- Tim Ritchie – album design
- Ed Simpson – photography
Charts