In the latest permutation of the adventurous L.A. jazz group SML, guitarist Gregory Ulhmann and saxophonist Josh Johnson are joined by bassist Sam Wilkes, for an album that both deepens and expands the SML project. Looking back to bebop and drifting through post-rock, with pit stops at Jaco Pastorius, Lyle Mays and the Beatles, Uhlmann/Johnson/Wilkes is unafraid to embrace the beautiful, even as it remains committed to experimentation and smooth radicalism.
Category: Sam Wilkes
Sam Wilkes :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Jazz in Los Angeles is blooming right now. Thanks in part to concert promoters like Yousef Hilmy of Minaret Records, people across the city are hearing a wide range of improvisational music styles in bars, stores, churches, and gardens that now moonlight as jazz venues. Sam Wilkes, a bass player, composer, arranger, and bandleader, is one of the most sought-after musicians in that scene.
Sam Wilkes :: Live on the Green
Though he’s fully capable of unrolling long, bejeweled runs on his instrument, Wilkes uses Live on the Green to showcase his skills as an arranger and producer. He tends to use his bass the way Lonnie Liston Smith used his piano in Pharoah Sanders’ group, announcing the changes and providing a safe space from which his fellow players can launch, while also perfuming the atmosphere