​Sam Eastmond

Sam Eastmond’s “artful arrangements lurch from Ellingtonian swing to colliery brass band, laced with fragments of Hollywood scores, surf rock and klezmer music.” (The Guardian),  Eastmond is known for his avant-garde big band The Spike Orchestra with works “that explore musical spaces in multiple dimensions – instrumentation, textures, dynamics, and style.” (Avant Music News) and his collaborations with John Zorn.

 

Eastmond has created “something of a niche as a big band arranger for John Zorn, a quite unique position” (Peter Slavid) he has recorded albums in Masada Book Two, Masada Book Three, and The Bagatelles book, as well as his own compositions for Zorn’s Tzadik Label.

 

In 2021 Eastmond was a guest director of NYJO presenting a sold-out residency at Cafe Oto for the London Jazz Festival of Zorn’s Masada books arranged for big band.

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He has recorded in UNAM’s Trasfrontera series, written for Zorn’s Arcana series, was a commissioned composer in the PRS Foundation New Music Biennial in 2019, receiving an IVOR NOVELLO award nomination in 2020 in the large ensemble (Jazz) category for the work.