Sam Blakeslee

Originally from Columbus, OH, Sam Blakeslee is a New York City based, award-winning trombonist and composer. Since his arrival in NYC in August 2017, he has performed at iconic jazz clubs such as The 55 Bar, Smalls, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, The Jazz Gallery, Zinc Bar, Lincoln Center, and the Blue Note. He can also be found performing and recording regularly with GRAMMY-nominated large ensembles like the Dan Pugach Nonet, Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows, Terraza Big Band, Emilio Solla’s Tango Jazz Orchestra, and New York Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band, as well as Manuel Valera’s New Cuban Express Big Band, Jihye Lee Orchestra, Big Heart Machine, Jazz Gallery Composer’s Showcase, and Tracy Yang Jazz Orchestra, among others

A Flash of Cobalt Blue

By Ines Velasco

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2025
Track listing: Todo Est�� Por Decir; The Heron Crosses; This Is the Way Down; In the Tropical Night; Vauhhall; Cae la nieve.

Points In Time

By John Yao

Label: See Tao Recordings
Released: 2025
Track listing: Upside; Not Even Close; Triceratops Blues; First Step; The Other Way; Early Morning Walk; Song For Nolan; Finger Painting.

Not Even Close

August 12, 2025

Album: Points In Time
By John Yao
Label: See Tao Recordings
Released: 2025
Duration: 8:16

John Yao and His 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

by Jack Bowers
August 4, 2025

The insuperable spirit of swinging big-band jazz is everywhere apparent on Points in Time, the seventh recording by New York-based composer, arranger and trombonist John Yao, and the second with his marvelous 17-Piece Instrument, a decade after its well-received debut, Flip-Flop. (See Tao, 2015). As on that earlier album, the playlist consists of ...

John Yao and his 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

by Pierre Giroux
July 13, 2025

Trombonist and composer John Yao presents a heartfelt and personal retrospective with Points In Time. This ambitious album delves deeply into the emotional and professional journey he has undertaken over the past twenty years in New York City. Leading his precisely coordinated ensemble, aptly called His 17-Piece Instrument, comprised of talented musicians from various points along ...

Sam Blakeslee Large Group at BLU Jazz+

by John Chacona
January 12, 2025

Sam Blakeslee Large Group BLU Jazz+ Akron, OH December 20, 2024 In December, flowers bloomed in northeast Ohio, but climate change had nothing to do with it. The sudden blossoming was the work of Sam Blakeslee who returned to his home state to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, 18 ...

Remy Le Boeuf: Architecture of Storms

by Jack Bowers
November 2, 2023

It's hard to become bored or complacent when listening to Architecture of Storms, alto saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf's second album as leader of the twenty-member Assembly of Shadows orchestra. Every song is quite different from the others, and every one has its moments of shapeliness and charm. Le Boeuf arranged every number and ...

43rd Annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 7, 2022

Part 1 | Part 2 43rd Annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland Playhouse SqaureCleveland, Ohio June 23-25, 2022 Not quite ten years ago in 2014, the Tri-C JazzFest morphed from a spring event held largely on campus to a summer happening in downtown Cleveland's Playhouse Square. Like with most festivals, the ...

Architecture of Storms

By Remy Le Boeuf

Label: Soundspore Records
Released: 2021
Track listing: Neener Neener; Minnesota, Wi.; The Melancholy Architecture of Storms; Face Value; Union; Sibbian; Secondhand Smile; Bring Me There; Rumpus.