SAM
GILL
Sam Gill is a saxophonist, improviser, composer and researcher based in Sydney, Australia. He leads the groups Coursed Waters & Scattered, is a member of the composer-performer collectives Microfiche & Mind on Fire, and has duo projects with electric bassist Joseph Franklin and drummer Simon Barker. Sam was a recipient of SIMA's Emerging Composers Mentorship in 2022, and was a finalist in the 2023 Freedman Jazz Fellowship, following his earlier nominations in 2020 and 2021. Sam received a PhD from Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2023.
Sam has performed with a number of Australia's most acclaimed improvisers including Chris Abrahams, Chris Hale, Marc Hannaford, Matt McMahon and Scott Tinkler. He has also worked with the Australian Art Orchestra and world-music ensemble Mara!, and is a member of Yutaro Okuda Quintet and Nick Calligeros' Soft Spot.
Performance highlights have included appearances at Copenhagen Jazz Festival, IBeam (NYC), the Australian Art Orchestra’s Meeting Points Series, STRATA Festival at Phoenix Central Park, SIMA’s International Women’s Jazz Festival, the NOWnow Festival, and the Jazzgroove Association Featured Artist series. His compositions have also been performed by Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection and the composer-performer collective Sideband.
Sam has appeared on numerous records, with releases on the labels Relative Pitch (NYC), Creative Sources (Portugal), Earshift Music (Australia) and his own label Radial Sounds. His releases have been critically recognised, with Microfiche’s most recent album receiving a five- star review in Dingo Jazz Journal, the Scattered debut album receiving four-stars in The Sydney Morning Herald, and the Coursed Waters album ‘Many Altered Returns’ being nominated in the category of ‘Award for Annual Excellence: Experimental Music’ in the 2019 APRA Art Music Awards.
His photography has been featured as album art for Hekka's debut EP wrecker (2018), Sideband's From the Depths (2020) and Marc Hannaford's These Worlds Are All In The Same Place (2022).