SAM COMERFORD Saxophonist / Composer

Sam Comerford (b. 1991 Salem, MA, USA) is a musician and composer from Dublin, Ireland, living in Brussels, Belgium.

His practice-based PhD “Radical Variations, Primitive Forms; the melodic language of Tommie Potts in jazz and improvised music” at KASK & Conservatorium, Gent, explores the potential of expanding Potts’ musical language into small group composition and improvisation, using intervallic techniques coming from Henry Threadgill and other avant-garde jazz composers.

Upcoming collaborations include albums with Ultan O’Brien & Thunderblender, a duo with Myra Melford, a quartet with John Francis Flynn, Jozef Dumoulin and Samuel Ber, and a solo saxophone album of improvisations around Irish traditional music.

As a composer and bandleader he has released the album “Stillorgan” (WERF, 2020) with Thunderblender, which was described by RTE Lyric FM as “the estrangement of the familiar”. He also wrote and produced the soundtrack to award winning experimental horror film Hexham Heads (2024), by Chloë Delanghe & Mattijs Driesen.

Alongside his own musical activities he maintains a busy schedule touring and recording in various projects incorporating elements of jazz, improvised music, and Irish music.

These include composer Neil Ó Loclainn’s projects Cuar and Emain Ablach, Adjunct Ensemble (IE/UK), Kris Defoort Quartet, Lander Gyselinck & Zwangere Guy’s “Pourriture Noble”, Le Grand Partir, Mobilhome, Insufficient Funs, Utsav Lal & Ragas to Reels, Hendrik Lasure & warm bad, Aerie, Augusto Pirroda Septet (IT/BE), ODIL, Umbra, and European Saxophone Ensemble (2012-13), led by Guillaume Orti.

He has a masters in Jazz saxophone from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (KCB), and a BA in Jazz performance from Newpark Music Centre (now DCU) in Dublin. He has been awarded the Toots Thielemans Award from the KCB, the “Best Soloist” prize from the Concours Tremplin d’Avignon, and has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Music Network, and the Vlaamse Overheid.

He has played at Jazz Middelheim, Handelsbeurs, De Bijloke, Flagey, Theatre National Bruxelles, KVS, Gaume Jazz Festival, (BE) 12 Points Festival (IE), Jazzdor (DE and FR), Schaffhauser Jazzfestival (CH), Match&Fuse festivals (IE and CH), Vilnius, Belgrade, Cork, Dublin, Manchester and Galway jazz festivals, Fat Cat Jazz Club Mongolia, Southbank Centre, Vortex Jazz club, Café OTO (UK), Meeting Jazz club (CN), Blue Frog, Mumbai (IN), and Sappho Jazz club (TW).