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, which will release a debut album New Blood on September 25, 2026 on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.
About Sam
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.
As a bandleader, he has released 5 albums as a leader including 3 with his eclectic ensemble Wistful Thinking. In May 2023, he recorded two albums of his big band music with the Sam Blakeslee Large Group in NYC. The first album, New Blood is to be released on September 25, 2026 on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. Notable Large Group performances have included a sold-out debut at Birdland Jazz Club in NYC, Tri-C JazzFest, Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, Blu Jazz, The Bop Stop, and most recently the 2025 Jazz Education Network Conference in January 2025.
As an active educator, he is currently on faculty at the University of Hartford - Hartt School of Music, in the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz as Director of the Hartt Big Band and Artist Teacher of Trombone. Before his arrival to New York City in 2017, he was the Director of the Tri-C JazzFest Academy and also served on the faculty at Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Youngstown State University. Sam is also an endorsing artist for Conn-Selmer/King Trombones and Denis Wick Mouthpieces & Mutes.