Barry Sample, seen in 2013 when he was the New York Gaming Commissioner chairman, rose from the humble origins of a potato farm to the highest echelons of New York state government. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Sample, seen in 2013, came the Capital Region to study at the University at Albany, where he was accepted into the Educational Opportunity Program for students with financial need. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in 1973, followed by a master’s degree in criminal justice in 1977. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

The funeral card for Barry Sample, whose life was celebrated on Saturday with service that featured music by Jimi Hendrix, one of his favorites. Aside from working in state service, Sample was also a guitarist who started with rock and then moved on to jazz.

Former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall shares reflections of his friend and former chief of staff, Barry Sample, at the New Comer Funeral Home in Watervliet. Sample died at 74 on April 27 after a long career in state service.

Barry Sample, who held several high-level state government administrative positions, is shown in an undated photo on the cover of his funeral program. He died April 27 at 74 at his home in Albany.

WATERVLIET — They played Jimi Hendrix tunes, twice, at Barry Sample’s funeral on a rainy Saturday.

The mournful guitar chords of “The Wind Cries Mary” washed across an overflowing reception room at New Comer Funeral Home.

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More than 200 mourners dreamed of an encore from the man beloved as the electrified hub of a wide wheel of friends and colleagues, a political fixer whose reputation as a confidant earned him the sobriquet “Booker T. Freud.”

When Sample died at 74 on April 27 at his home in Albany of an undisclosed cause, close friends were shocked that their indefatigable orchestrator had passed.

Former state Comptroller H. Carl........

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