“It’s hard not to hear just how easily melodies are wrung from the hands of an old soul like Sam Wilson. Resembling eyespots on moth wings, Sam’s music wards off what preys upon our tenderness. More than easy listening, her compositions are outright easy going. Passing over edgier idioms preoccupying much of non-commercial jazz these days, the Canadian resident returns the genre to its simpler roots, connecting post-bop energy with contemporary production techniques.” - Todd B. Gruel

— Pop Matters on the album Groundless Apprehensions

Press Photos

Photography by Studio204

Bio

Sam Wilson is a canadian guitarist whose practice as a performer-composer focuses on creating instrumental music for improvisers. Her style blends a love of jazz and finger-style guitar into her playing. Wilson's albums ‘Into a Heart Pt. II’ and ‘New Doors’ (Jackson\Wilson Duo) both won Music Nova Scotia’s ‘Jazz Recording of the year’ in 2022 and 2023. In 2021 Sam won the Paul Cram Creation award and composed ‘Recover-we’, her first piece for orchestra which was performed by Symphony Nova Scotia at the 2023 Open Waters Festival. Sam's current artistic muse is wild spaces and site specific places, you can hear this on her recent release ‘Wintertides’; a trio project featuring Vancouver based musicians Jen Yakamovich and Geordie Hart. It was written during the winter of 2022 on the east coast in Scotsburn NS and the west coast at Lena Residency, on Galiano Island BC, it is inspired by contrasting landscapes and the collaboration of bi-coastal communities. Sam frequently performs with the acclaimed trombonist Andrew Jackson in their award winning project the ‘Jackson\Wilson Duo’, and with Nicola Miller and Gabriella Ciurcovich in their collective trio ‘Yarrow’. 

Sample Tracks