Sami Stevens

NYC singer-songwriter Sami Stevens harnesses Jazz, Soul, and Folk influences to create truly intimate original music. In writing songs, singing and accompanying herself on keys, she crafts a musical world based in silence, delivering dynamic, personal performances. Her current NYC based band features Matt Aronoff on bass, Jacob Drab on guitar and Peter Moffett on drums.

Sami is also an avid collaborator; she is currently joining nine-time Grammy winner Norah Jones on auxiliary keys and background vocals, as Norah tours her 2024 release Visions. Some other current recording and performance based collaborations include Rose Thorne by Kenny Wollesen, I Insist by Kazemde George, The Way I Feel Inside by Marty Isenberg, the Make Your Mind EP with producer KG,B, and Brave New World by Tredici Bacci.

In 2023, Sami released her debut solo album Morning on Sunnyside Records. Born from a love of classic American music and an ear for storytelling, Morning showcases Stevens’ rich vocal delivery as it ebbs between intimate personal stories and stunning symphonic textures, treating the vastness of the human condition with painterly impressions and an empathetic disposition. Glide Magazine wrote “Sami Stevens did more than impress with her first solo outing, she quickly established herself as one of the most promising songwriters to appear in the past few years.”

Sami’s performance and recording career has transcended genre; she has performed with Genius Grant recipient Jason Moran and six-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch, collaborated with acclaimed avant-garde composer John Zorn, and recorded with “King of Treme” Shannon Powell and DIY legend Gary Wilson. Sami has opened for Grammy nominated folk singer Greg Brown, Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive, and Black Star MC Talib Kweli. Sami has appeared on various film and TV soundtracks as well, including Archer (FX; J.G. Thirlwell) and Sesame Street (PBS). 

Sami has toured North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia with various projects, appearing at the Barclays Center, Smalls, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Apollo, the Jazz Gallery, Red Rocks, Roulette, the Kennedy Center, Paramount Brooklyn, the Late Show with Steven Colbert, Lincoln Center, Cotton Club Tokyo, and National Sawdust, and at music festivals including Big Ears, Bottlerock, Austin City Limits, Sydney Fest, and SXSW. Her projects have been lauded by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Downbeat, and the New York Times, and featured on various official Spotify playlists, including “Best Vocal Jazz of 2021.”

Sami studied privately with Dominique Eade and John McNeil at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with a BM in Vocal Jazz Performance in the fall of 2014. The same year, she received a BA in Psychology from Tufts University. Sami grew up in East Winthrop, Maine, and is currently living in Brooklyn, NY.