Origin New Orleans Labels Hypersoul Records Genres funk, jazz, rock | Instruments trombone Name Big Sam Years active 2001-present | |
Role Musician · bigsamsfunkynation.com Profiles | ||
Associated acts Dirty Dozen Brass Band | ||
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Sammie Big Sam Williams is a trombonist and band leader from New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been a member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and currently leads Big Sam's Funky Nation. In youth he studied with educator and saxophonist Kidd Jordan and at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). In his teens, Big Sam was a founding member of the Stooges Brass Band, and later joined the Dirty Dozen, allowing him to meet and play with other touring bands and musicians such as Karl Denson, Dave Matthews, Widespread Panic and James Brown. After one year with the Dirty Dozen Sam began a side project broadening his musical ambitions. In 2006, he played with Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint on their grammy-nominated "The River in Reverse" album and subsequent international tour. Over the years, Big Sam's Funky Nation would become his main band, touring both nationally, internationally, and at major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Gathering of the Vibes, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Voodoo Music Experience, South By Southwest, Austin City Limits, and others. Big Sam's Funky Nation is primarily a funk and rock that can also have elements of traditional jazz, contemporary jazz, acid jazz, dance, hard rock and even punk.
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Big Sam had a recurring role in the HBO Original Series, Treme. The series followed residents of New Orleans including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians, and ordinary New Orleanians as they tried to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Sam learned only in adulthood that he is the great-grandson of Buddy Bolden, the famed cornetist.
Williams proposed to his now wife on stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 4, 2014. They were married in 2015 and are parents to twins.