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Sam Harris is a pianist from Dallas, Texas. He has toured and recorded extensively with artists like Ambrose Akinmusire, Melissa Aldana, Logan Richardson, Rudy Royston, and Ben Van Gelder. He is featured on Akinmusire’s Grammy-nominated album, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment, as well as Aldana’s Visions. 

For more than a decade, Sam has performed with his trio featuring bassist Martin Nevin and drummer Craig Weinrib. In 2018, they released HARMONY, a collection of ambient blues meditations. The album was included in the New York Times’ “Best Jazz of 2018” list. Sam released SOLO in 2021, a series of placid sonic environments for piano and synthesizers recorded at his home, garnering praise in Bandcamp’s monthly “Best Jazz on Bandcamp” series.

Sam’s music draws on the blues and new-age environmental music to create atmospheric, minimalist works that reconceptualize the classic piano trio format.

PRESS

"Is it a brilliantly assembled suite of compositions for trio, or a loose, 30-minute improvisation? Either way, it’s low, dark and beautiful. And it feels like a guarantee that we’ll be talking about the pianist Sam Harris for a long time."

• Giovanni Russonello, New York Times' "Best Jazz of 2018"

"Sam Harris has some different ideas about how a piano trio works. His new recording HARMONY documents them. I'm proud to have been one of his teachers. Go hear this."

• Jason Moran

“This is an album that’s more of a meditation than a rollicking good time. It’s about coastal erosion and Zeno’s paradoxes and sands in an hourglass. It’s an album about how the small things are potentially big things when given enough time and room. It’s a lot that starts from a little, and a lovely collection of songs from a talented pianist.”

• Anthony Dean Harris, Nextbop.com

“The group taps into something so basic and profound that I find it impossible to ignore and deeply satisfying to get lost within.”

• Peter Margasak 

“It begins with soft, minimal chords that are gradually overtaken by flourishes like the ice on a frozen lake’s surface cracking beneath your feet. Later, the music moves into a lyrical zone that may remind you of Keith Jarrett, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on here, too — really heavy blues combined with almost free jazz journeys out.”

• Phil Freeman, Stereogum

“...you should allow yourself a little serenity now and then, in order to brace for what’s ahead. Sam Harris’ meditative Solo will help get you there. These gentle pieces on piano and synths approach each melody as if it has a thousand different facets, each one waiting to be explored.”

• Dave Sumner, The Best Jazz on Bandcamp, January 2021