Biography of Sam Sharp

Originally from Aylesbury, Sam has lived in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Cambridge before finally settling in Hackney, East London. Big band playing dominates his early career (Aylesbury Music Centre Dance Band, Leeds Uni Big Band, Big Smoke Jazz Orchestra, Guildhall Jazz Orchestra): it was through such groups that Sam found himself performing at such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, the South Bank, The Montreux, North Sea and London Jazz festivals. He also made numerous appearances on TV and Radio, including BBC’s Blue Peter no less than 4 times! Sam has also been involved in directing the music for various stage productions over the years, and has considerable educational, workshop and leadership experience. Despite this, in the first half of 2005, Sam had become more or less music-free: his IT career had begun to take over all of his time, at great personal cost to himself and those close to him. Thus he decided to take some time off, and inspired by Glastonbury, launched himself into a hugely ambitious writing project, going from original conception to album launch over a time period of just 6 months. All this whilst studying a Masters in jazz at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama. Sam hates the blandness of the new wave of "easily listening ballad anthem guff" pop groups, and wants to take it back to the basics of "real music that makes you want to dance your *** off and scream out in joy". In a fit of eagerness verging on the annoying, he has now sworn himself to a life with no regrets, riding out the high and lows of a creative existence. Based on his debut effort, we think he made the right decision.