Sam Reider

After studying jazz piano, composer Sam Reider branched into folk and bluegrass, playing accordion and piano as a sideman, soloist, and with his group the Human Hands. Combining these genres with elements of jazz and modern composition, he and his backing six-piece released The Human Hands EP in 2020. Reider returned to his roots with the solo piano album Petrichor in 2022. Raised in San Francisco, California with access to his grandfather's 1918 Steinway piano, Reider played from a young age. It was later, while studying at Columbia University, that he became fascinated with American roots music. (His senior thesis compared the songwriting of Woody Guthrie and Ira Gershwin.) During that time, he would transpose traditional fiddle melodies to accordion while also learning to sing the songs. His skill set led to an opportunity to tour on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and collaborate with international artists, his accordion always in tow. He would remain based in New York for ten years, during which time he also collaborated with the likes of mandolinist Sierra Hull, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, David Amram, and T-Pain, among many others. Reider's first album, the self-released Too Hot to Sleep, merged jazz and Americana with an ensemble that included violinist Alex Hargreaves (Turtle Island String Quartet, Béla Fleck), saxophonist Eddie Barbash (Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Jon Batiste & Stay Human), mandolinist Dominick Leslie (Michael Daves, the Deadly Gentlemen), guitarists Grant Gordy (David Grisman, Aoife O'Donovan) and Roy Williams (Stephane Wrembel), and bassist Dave Speranza (Jim Campilongo). He regrouped most of that lineup on the 2020 EP The Human Hands, substituting strings player Duncan Wickel for second guitarist Gordy. It was recorded live to tape in Brooklyn. The composer/multi-instrumentalist then moved back to California, where he was reunited with his grandfather's piano. Released on Slow & Steady Records in the middle of 2022, Petrichor was his first solo piano album. He cited Duke Ellington, Keith Jarrett, and Claude Debussy among its inspirations.
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