Sam Leak is an English jazz pianist based in London, known for his albums Places, [1] on Jellymould Jazz, and Aquarium, [2] on the Babel Label. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Sam Leak is an English jazz pianist based in London, known for his albums Places, [1] on Jellymould Jazz, and Aquarium, [2] on the Babel Label. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Leak studied Jazz piano with Gwilym Simcock at the Royal Academy of Music. Leak is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, [7] where he is researching the learnability of Absolute Pitch by adults. [8] [9]
Leak is a Senior lecturer in Popular Music at Middlesex University. [10]
His band 'Aquarium,' with saxophonist James Allsopp, double bassist Calum Gourlay, and drummer Joshua Blackmore, have been described by BBC Music Magazine as playing "assured and sophisticated acoustic jazz with deep roots in the tradition, that knows exactly what it's trying to do, and succeeds." [11] Mojo describe them as: "Multi-faceted and smart as a pin, this is poetic chamber jazz of a very high order." [12]
As leader:
As sideman
The Royal Academy of Music's jazz programme has produced a remarkable crop of newcomers in recent times: notably the Mercury-nominated pianists Gwilym Simcock and Kit Downes. Now comes Sam Leak, an artist of comparable promise...Leak is a subtle storyteller who keeps the grooves and colours changing.
Leak's well-worked, linear compositions are shaded with English eccentricity. Bucolic reveries toughen into grimy urban soundscapes, there are classical references and the band's performance has a gritty matter-of-factness....Improvisation remains at the heart of any jazz performance, and both Leak and Allsopp are strong soloists who grasp complex themes with a firm hand. Leak solos with long lines that move from near-abstraction to rootsy repeats and then fade tantalisingly into the lower register.
Aquarium is a mature and often sumptuous statement of intent
The emphasis is wholly on a carefully handled tension in the rhythm section with drums and bass locked in a fraught, plaintive drone, the delicacy of which is emphasized by Blackmore's almost tabla-like snare work and the discreet throb of Gourlay's bass, tantaslizing with two or three note stabs. Leak plays economically, brushing upper register chords with a Satie-like finesse to imbue the whole atmosphere with a brooding grace that is then heightened by Allsopp's stringently wrought overtones and terse but melodic coda
Leak fingertipping the keys in an elegant fashion that complemented Allsopp's Phrygian modal developmental sections nonetheless delivered, his runs involving satin textures underpinned by Gourlay's round woody sound.
Multi-faceted and smart as a pin, this is poetic chamber jazz of a very high order
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