Sam Wilkes
From Los Angeles
Popularity
Sam Wilkes has 2 upcoming shows in the Netherlands. The next one is on November 11, 2026 at BIMHUIS, Amsterdam. All 2 tour dates
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About
Also known as: Samuel Aaron Wilkes
Sam Wilkes is a Los Angeles bassist and composer whose work sits somewhere between jazz, ambient music, and indie rock, often defying easy categorization. His debut solo album Wilkes landed in 2018 and Pitchfork described it as dissolving jazz structures into ambient, vaguely psychedelic forms, while DownBeat called it one of the year's best L.A. jazz albums. That same year he and saxophonist Sam Gendel released Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar, recorded live to tape outside a restaurant, and one track from it, BOA, later appeared in the 2021 Netflix film Malcolm & Marie. Wilkes and Gendel have become a genuinely fruitful duo, releasing three collaborative albums together, the most recent being The Doober in 2024, a jazz inflected covers record touching on songs by Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill, and Sheryl Crow. His 2023 solo album Driving took a sharp left turn into indie rock and chamber pop, with acoustic guitar and his own vocals front and center. He has also toured with jazz funk band Knower and contributed to Chaka Khan's album Hello Happiness, co writing the title track.
