Sam Blakeslee Large Group

Sam Blakeslee is an award-winning  New York City-based trombonist and composer. Most recently, he was named a 2025 Rising Star Trombonist of The Year in the Downbeat Magazine Critics’ Poll. He has performed at iconic jazz clubs and performance venues such as Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, The Jazz Gallery, Smalls, Zinc Bar, 55 Bar, The Blue Note, The Side Door Jazz Club, The Kennedy Center, Banff Centre, and Lincoln Center. Sam leads an 18-piece jazz orchestra, the Sam Blakeslee Large Group.

As a trombonist, Blakeslee is active in the contemporary big band scene in New York where he performs regularly with GRAMMY-nominated ensembles like Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows, Manuel Valera’s New Cuban Express Big Band, Terraza Big Band, Dan Pugach Nonet, New York Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band, and Emilio Solla’s Tango Jazz Orchestra. He also appeared on the Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows album Architecture of Storms, which was nominated in 2023 for the GRAMMY Award in the Best Large Ensemble Album category. He has also performed with jazz artists Sean Jones, Joe Lovano, Dan Wilson, Dick Oatts, Aretha Franklin, John Clayton, Big Heart Machine, Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra, Jiyhe Lee Orchestra, Tracy Yang Jazz Orchestra, Birdland Big Band, Joel Harrison Large Ensemble, Jhoely Garay Jazz Orchestra, Zhengtao Pan Jazz Orchestra, and The Jazz Gallery Composer’s Showcase directed by Miho Hazama. 

As a composer, In 2018, Blakeslee won the David Baker Prize in Composition from Ravinia Steans Music Institute and was also a 2020 COVID-19 Commission Grant recipient from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers. Blakeslee was also a featured presenter for his composition Ephemeral at the 2024 International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers Symposium at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Sam Blakeslee Large Group - New Blood

New Blood is the debut release from the Sam Blakeslee Large Group and features seven of his stellar original compositions and arrangements as well as an outstanding band of top New York City talents including Charles Pillow, David Smith, Alex Norris, Pete McCann, Matt Pavolka, and many others.

Highlights on New Blood include the title track, written in 2013 as an anthem to the new voices and musical aesthetics that were emerging on the Northeast Ohio scene (a region with a rich jazz & blues heritage that has produced trailblazing exponents such as Albert Ayler, Joe Lovano, and Tadd Dameron.) A mid-up tempo, driving tune, “Franklin’s Blues” not only reflects the meaningful and important relationship Blakeslee has with the blues, but also with his beloved cat, Franklin. The contemporary and contrapuntal “Another Day In Which To Excel” (commissioned by the International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers) is dedicated to the composer’s late Grandfather who would awake each day at 5 AM without an alarm, and declare, “another day in which to excel.” “Slow Growth/New Growth” was originally composed in 2018 for string quartet, piano, bass, and drums as part of the Bridges Residency at Ravinia Steans Music Institute (created to promote and further the creation of music which straddles the genre divide between jazz and classical), and as part of that experience was the trombonist/composer being awarded the inaugural David Baker Prize in Composition. The artist’s will to express their unique artistic vision is ever-present. For Blakeslee this manifested itself in the composition, “Escaping Shadows.” He explains, “I was trying to escape the musical spheres of my own teachers and influences and trying to find out what I was actually hearing, not what other people were.” He has accomplished this with aplomb across the entire album.

 Much of the sentiment behind the compositions on New Blood is centered around perseverance and resilience through Blakeslee’s personal journey leading an ensemble as impractical as a big band! From the humble beginnings of the group’s first performances in 2013 in a basement venue in Akron, OH, to recording this album with a large group of some of the most compelling artists on the New York City scene, is an experience that Blakeslee will treasure his entire life. And now with the release of New Blood the listener can treasure the music with each listen.