Acclaimed vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross’s playing erupts through lush arrangements like “consistent currents of electricity” (Downbeat) in our second Jazz Club performance. Join his octet onstage for an intimate experience through the seven movements of Ross’s album The Parable of The Poet—described by many as an “absolute triumph."
Joel Ross' Parables
Pianist David Roitstein and guitarist Larry Koonse share a deep musical connection that goes back over 30 years. This extraordinary duo will perform a mix of music they've been working on throughout their long musical friendship. All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Clarence Penn is one of the busiest jazz drummers in the world, a leader of multiple bands, a composer, a prolific producer, and an educator. Since 1991, when he arrived in New York City, Penn has placed his unique blend of mega-chops, keen intellect, and heady musicianship at the service of a staggering array of A-list artists—a chronological short-list includes Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Stanley Clarke, Steps Ahead, Makoto Ozone, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Richard Galliano, and Fourplay. Penn’s impressive discography includes several hundred studio albums (including the Grammy-winning recordings 34th and Lex by Randy Brecker and Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue by Maria Schneider) representing a 360-spectrum of jazz expression, and he’s toured extensively throughout the United States, the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia. He’s composed music for films and commercials, and produced tracks for numerous singers in the pop and alternative arenas. He earned a “Ten Best of 1997” accolade from the New York Times for his first leader recording, Penn’s Landing. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was a protégé of Ellis Marsalis, Penn is active as an educator and drum clinician. From 2004 to 2012, he taught on the faculty of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. He’s also served on faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, Italy, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Intensive Jazz Institute. Penn currently leads several ensembles. His most recent “rhythmically intoxicating” recording is 2014’s “Monk The Lost Files”arrangements of the music of Thelonious Monk. Released on the Origin record lable, an amazing quartet comprising saxophonist Chad Leftkowitz-Brown, Pianist Gerald Clayton/Donald Vega, and bassist Yasushi Nakamura performing the music of Thelonius Monk with today’s modern jazz sensibility. Near completion is a “world music” studio project of songs and instrumentals that melds background voices—including his own—with a world class band. Whether Penn is leading his own band or performing as a sideman, he brings to the table unfailing versatility and professionalism, an ability to find creative ways to interpret a global array of styles and idioms, and a stated intention “to play music that’s warm and organic for the people and for myself.” His motto: “When people hear my name, I want them to think, ‘I don’t know what band he’s playing with tonight or what he’ll be doing, but it’s going to be good, it’s going to be musical.’” All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
“I don’t view art as contemporary, modern, traditional, old or new,” says pianist-composer Eric Reed. “Nor do I endorse cliques or camps. I promulgate integrity in all things.” -Eric Reed Through more than a quarter-century as a first-caller on the jazz scene, Reed has articulated this inclusive conception as a leader of numerous ensembles, solo performer, composer, producer, educator, and sideman with numerous artists, including extended stints with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Buster Williams, and Wynton Marsalis. Whatever the context, whatever the style, he consistently animates the flow with fresh ideas, virtuosic chops, intellectual clarity and an unwavering will to groove. Reed developed the core principles of his musical sensibility almost from the time he began to speak. “Before I could even reach the pedals,” he recalls, he was playing for and enhancing worship services for the congregants in the small Baptist storefront church in West Philadelphia where his father, a quartet singer, sang and preached. “My earliest experiences in the Holiness church were colored with charisma; people were moved largely by emotion,” he says of that functional setting. “Music played a major role in manipulating these emotions, even inciting people to dance. I developed my ear in an extraordinary way; if someone started to sing, I could quickly find their key and begin to accompany them.” Noting their son’s exceptional talent, Reed’s parents signed him up for private piano lessons at age 5, which continued at South Philly’s prestigious Settlement Music School. In the meantime, his aunt and uncle scoured flea markets for records. “They found these records by Horace Silver, Art Blakey and Dave Brubeck. Additionally, in our home, all kinds of music could be heard on the stereo and the radio because my parents and older siblings were into gospel and popular forms of music.” Reed recalls. “I listened to everything.” On a remarkable series of recent recordings, Reed illuminates his aesthetic scope, navigating diverse terrain with intense focus and sagely concision. Consider, for example, one of Reed’s most recent releases, The Adventurous Monk, a 2014 date on which he offers idiomatic yet personalized, loose yet cohesive interpretations of ten works by the genius pianist-composer Thelonious Monk. It is Reed’s third Monk project since 2009, when he made The Dancing Monk, followed in 2011 by The Baddest Monk, on which he addresses the iconic songs with just the right admixture of maverick recklessness and natural command. “I imbibed heavily on Monk’s music as I became more immersed in composition and my journey as an artist,” Reed remarks. “The rhythmic, harmonic and melodic variety in his pieces inspire, allow and compel me to embrace the challenge of trying to convey messages in a non-verbal manner.” All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Music, and more specifically, the composition of music, has been in Christina Galisatus’ blood for as long as she can remember. Her father is a trumpet player and music educator, and starting as a five year old, Galisatus began learning to play the piano, though she explored improvisation and composition at the same time that she was learning to play the instrument. Led by a desire to play in larger groups, Christina later studied French horn and had the opportunity to tour internationally performing in symphony orchestras at a young age. From there, she went on to study jazz piano performance and composition at Stanford University. While her most recent compositions have a sound that draws from a rich folk tradition and singer-songwriters adjacent to that world, they are built upon these foundations she has been exploring since she was a kindergartner who found music to be the best way to express herself. Even for a brilliant performer and songwriter, the obstacles and roadblocks for any female musician, let alone one who plays in the jazz world, have worn on her. On her debut album Without Night she shrugs away the expectations of others and has created a masterpiece in her own image. The only way this album could exist was for Christina to approach it on her own terms, as an artist willing to break with convention to make an album that was less about chops and technical skill than an ability to translate deeply felt emotions into songs that feel simultaneously familiar and deeply innovative. Above all, Galisatus wants her songs to be a reflection of what she loves in music. “The music that I've always been drawn to, whether it's listening to music or performing and composing, has always been music that just feels beautiful to me,” she explains. “All of the music that I have been writing recently, both as part of my debut album and since then, came during and shortly after realizing that I don't have to adhere to anyone else’s vision.” It was a significant hurdle that Christina had to leap over, and once she finally made that jump, her music has undergone a definitive transformation towards something that feels completely true to her. “I need to honor what I find honest,” she adds with the confidence of an artist that has found their voice. All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Legendary drummer, USC Professor and Rochester Music Hall of Fame Inductee Roy McCurdy has worked with just about all the major jazz personalities, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Sarah Vaughan and Benny Golson. "This group plays in straight ahead jazz, so come prepared to tap your foot and have fun." -Roy McCurdy All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Trumpeter of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Class of 2023, Julien Knowles was mentored by numerous legendary jazz artists including Ambrose Akinmusire, Terri Lyne Carrington, Herbie Hancock, Walter Smith III, and Wayne Shorter. During his time in the full-fellowship graduate program Julien toured internationally with pianist and mentor Herbie Hancock, and currently leads master classes across the country on improvisation, composition, and pedagogy. Julien has studied composition with Billy Childs, John Hollenbeck, and Vince Mendoza, and trumpet with Ralph Alessi and Dan Rosenboom. Since moving to Los Angeles two years ago, Julien has toured the United States with Louis Cole and performed as a sideman with Gerald Clayton, Joe LaBarbera, and Alan Ferber. Julien holds a weekly residency at The York, performing alongside David Binney, Justin Brown, and a revolving cast of L.A.’s most coveted jazz musicians. Julien appears on Two Legs Bad— the latest release by ECM recording artist and alto-saxophonist Peter Epstein— and is currently awaiting the release of his debut album As Many, As One on Biophilia Records, featuring original compositions for quintet and string quartet. Julien is commissioned by the Reno Jazz Orchestra, The University of Nevada, Reno, and various independent contractors for big band and chamber ensemble pieces. In 2023, Julien’s piece “Tempest Quake” for quartet and string quartet was selected as a winner of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Bridges Composition Competition. Julien’s arrangement of trumpeter Ralph Alessi’s composition “Arim Issela” was debuted by the Swiss Jazz Orchestra, and the Reno Jazz Orchestra’s recent release Next: New Directions showcases 3 of Julien's new compositions and arrangements for large ensemble. Julien is credited as a producer on releases by fellow rising-star alto saxophonist Devin Daniels (Grandiose) and the Reno Jazz Orchestra (Next: New Directions). Julien is a CarolBrass endorsed artist. Julien is a CarolBrass endorsed artist. All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
After the success of his debut solo album, “Citizen,” Artyom has been touring with diverse players such as Everlast, Kamasi Washington, Melody Gardot, Daedalus, Flying Lotus, Peter Erskine, Hadrien Feraud, Charles Altura, MdCL, Tigran Hamasyan, Gretchen Parlato, Virgil Donati and many more. All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Michael Orenstein is a jazz pianist based in Los Angeles. His unique sound, characterized by Jazz Radio Barcelona as a combination of “rhythmic richness, creativity, and modern language,” has garnered him significant recognition as a leader and sideman. In May 2022, he signed with Origin Records for the release of his debut record, Aperture, which has received high praise and radio play from jazz publications and stations around the world. AllAboutJazz writes “The musical expertise and interplay are first-class and there is a full measure of pleasing music from start to finish.” Since Aperture’s release, Orenstein has had the most exciting year of his career to date, from taking on the role of interim pianist/keyboardist in the legendary HR Bigband (Frankfurt) directed by Jim McNeely, to touring and leading workshops in New Zealand with the Lauren Ellis Quartet, the Bahamas with Giveton Gelin, and the Netherlands with Nick Adema. He also won Jazztimes Top Track 2022, and First Prize in the 2022 Inner Urge Music Competition (Italy). Aside from international touring, Orenstein currently maintains a busy schedule playing gigs in the Los Angeles Area, as well as periodically filling in for jazz greats Alan Pasqua and Russell Ferrante as piano professor at USC Thornton School of Music. Orenstein’s success so far is largely due to his musical upbringing. Hailing from Berkeley, CA, Orenstein was surrounded by a vibrant jazz community at a young age. Through programs at SFJazz, the Jazzschool, and Berkeley High, he got to play with Terrence Blanchard, Christian McBride, and Wycliffe Gordon. He earned a B.M from Oberlin, where he received the Wendell Logan Award in Jazz Studies, and met trumpet legend Eddie Henderson, who is his mentor to this day. During his time in Ohio from 2013-2017, he was selected for the Banff Workshop in Jazz, received 3 compositions awards from Downbeat Magazine, and won an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers award. He also toured the Midwest with Chilean jazz guitarist and vocalist Camila Meza. In 2018 Orenstein moved to LA, where he quickly gained traction on the jazz scene. During his first few years, he received accolades from many institutions and competitions, including the Bridges Composition Competition (winner), the Hancock Institute Auditions (finalist), the American Jazz Pianist Competition (finalist), and the International Piano Competition in South Africa (“Best Performance of the South African Piece”). It was his second time in SA, where he also went on tour, recorded an album, and led workshops. In 2021, Orenstein earned his M.M. at USC, where he was awarded the assistantship position for Alan Pasqua and Jason Goldman. All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted) Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:30pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show. Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.
Grammy Award winning producer and vocalist Steve Tyrell is the definition of a renaissance man. In his nearly five decades in the music business, he has achieved success as a singer, songwriter, producer, music supervisor, and most recently, radio host.
Jazz. Rock. Jazz-rock. Across more than four decades, legendary drummer Simon Phillips has shown an uncanny ability to excel in most any musical environment. Precision, intensity and emotion are hallmarks of Simon’s sound in every setting. By his twenties, Simon had already worked with iconic figures including Jeff Beck, Jack Bruce, Pete Townshend, Al Di Meola, Jon Anderson, Jan Hammer, Stanley Clarke, Jon Lord, Mike Oldfield, Brian Eno and others. High-profile recordings and/or tours were soon to come with the likes of Mick Jagger, Asia, The Who, Gary Moore, Joe Satriani and many more. But it was the untimely death of drummer Jeff Porcaro that led to Simon’s 21-year presence in Toto (1992-2014), highlighted by ten albums and numerous world tours. During this period Phillips also worked on various projects led by Steve Lukather, Michael Schenker, Derek Sherinian and others. Simon’s own compositions and group concept began to gel with the Protocol II album in 2013. There have since been three more Protocol albums, culminating with Protocol V in 2022. The band now features longtime electric bassist Ernest Tibbs, veteran keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz (John McLaughlin), Jacob Scesney on saxophones and the brilliant young guitarist Alex Sill.
“Winkler is not only a terrific vocalist, but is also one of the most interesting wordsmiths around today.” – Joe Lang, Jersey Jazz “Mark Winkler is a musical marvel and a true original! At last, a writer who sings and a singer who swings!” – Rex Reed
“The new record takes the concept of a ‘dark, foggy drive along Highway 1’ and evokes a sultry, wee-hourly landscape, thanks to McKay’s tinkly, jazzy piano and dreamy vocals.” —LA Weekly