American jazz group formed in Los Angeles in 1960. Houston Texas school friends [a=Wilton Felder] (tenor sax, bass), Nesbert [a="Stix" Hooper] (percussion) and [a=Joe Sample] (keyboards) playing together in a high school marching band, forming the Swingsters in 1954. While attending Texas Southern University, they met [a=Wayne Henderson] (trombone) and with two others formed the Modern Jazz Sextet. 1958 saw the future Jazz Crusaders Sample, Felder, Hooper and Henderson drop out of college and move to Los Angeles, where they performed as The Nite Hawks. In 1960, they returned to jazz and formed the Jazz Crusaders as a quintet with a succession of different bass players, landing a contract with [l=World Pacific Jazz] in 1961.