Samo Salamon

Samo Salamon (born October 9, 1978) is a Slovenian jazz guitarist and composers, working in a wide field of modern jazz (from chamber-like settings to bigger ensembles). His music includes interest in through-composed music and improvised music, incorporating influences of jazz, classical music, avant-garde and free jazz. He has recorded over 30 albums as a bandleader for labels, such as Clean Feed Records, Not Two Records, Steeplechase Records, Fresh Sound New Talent and multiple others. In his career he has worked with Howard Levy, Tim Berne, Paul McCandless, Mark Turner, Michel Godard, John Hollenbeck, Drew Gress, Tony Malaby, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey, David Binney, Josh Roseman, John Hebert, Donny McCaslin, Dominique Pifarely, Gerald Cleaver, Bruno Chevillon, Loren Stillman, John O'Gallagher, Julian Arguelles, Carlo DeRosa, Tyshawn Sorey, Matt Brewer, Christian Lillinger, Pascal Niggenkemper, Stefano Battaglia, and others.
In 1998 Salamon established his first group Ansasa Trio, which focused on mixing etno jazz and world music influences with improvisation. The trio released the album Arabian Picnic in 2002. The album was described "a fine example of how much jazz there is to hear out there as its future is now."
In 2004 and 2005 Salamon had an extremely productive period in New York City, producing two albums with some of New York's finest jazz musicians. Both albums were released for the Fresh Sound New Talent label - Samo Salamon Quartet: Two Hours with Tony Malaby, Mark Helias and Tom Rainey and Samo Salamon NYC Quintet: Government Cheese with David Binney, Josh Roseman, Mark Helias and Gerald Cleaver.
In 2006 Salamon started his long-lasting musical relationship with the French tuba player Michel Godard and Italian drummer Roberto Dani. The trio released two albums in 2007 - Fall Memories with guest Luciano Biondini on accordion and Nano with guest soloist Julian Arguelles on tenor and soprano saxophone. The trio continued working until 2012, resulting in two more albums - Live! from 2009 and Eleven Stories from 2012.
Another important milestone appeared for Salamon in 2008 when he formed his Bassless Trio, a lineup which continuously worked until 2018 featuring Salamon on guitar and Roberto Dani on drums, while soloists exchanged for different projects (Paul McCandless, Achille Succi, Dominique Pifarely, Howard Levy). Although the first edition of the bassless trio in 2008 featured two jazz legends - saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey. In 2011, the first album Samo Salamon Bassless Trios: Duality (Samo Records, 2011) with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey, Achille Succi & Roberto Dani was released featuring a US and a European Bassless Trio. Other bassless trio records followed through the years - in 2015 Little River with Paul McCandless and Roberto Dani, in 2016 Unity with Julian Arguelles and John Hollenbeck, in 2018 Traveling Moving Breathing with Tony Malaby and Roberto Dani and in 2019 Swirling Blind Unstilled with Szilard Mezei and Jaka Berger.
Throughout this period Salamon also performed a lot in duo with the Italian piano virtuoso Stefano Battaglia, producing also two albums by the duo - windS in 2016 and Pure Magic in 2018. Battaglia and Salamon played primarily improvisations and some compositions having "the excitement of musicians working without a net", resulting that for "both artists this is an excellent showcase for their talents and presents a marvellous and captivating experience of a live session with two players absolutely in tune with each other".
In 2014 Salamon also did a bigger project with the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra and Roberto Dani on drums, resulting in an album of chamber-like music infused with jazz - Orchestrology, "music that emerges as a truly unique meeting between classical music and jazz". Several other projects in this decade included a duo with the harmonica maestro Howard Levy, guitar trio with Mikkel Ploug and Manu Codjia, international sextet with Achille Succi, Julian Arguelles, Pascal Niggenkemper, Roberto Dani and Christian Lillinger as well as several improvised projects involving the violist Szilard Mezei.
In 2020 Salamon started a big pan-European guitar project Almost Alone featuring 36 jazz guitarists from 35 different European countries. The three volumes of »Almost Alone« will come out through the following year. Here are the guitarists featured on Almost Alone Vol. 1 that was released in November 2020 - Alex Machacek (Austria), Rafal Sarnecki (Poland), Cenk Erdogan (Turkey), Andre Fernandes (Portugal), Kalle Kalima (Finland), Jacob Young (Norway), Albert Vila (Spain), Dušan Jevtović (Serbia), Lorenzo Di Maio (Belgium), Philipp Schaufelberger (Switzerland) and Spiros Exaras (Greece).
Release year	Title 	Label 	Line-up
2020 	Almost Alone Vol. 1 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Alex Machacek, Rafal Sarnecki, Cenk Erdogan, Andre Fernandes, Kalle Kalima, Jacob Young, Albert Vila, Dušan Jevtović, Lorenzo Di Maio, Philipp Schaufelberger, Spiros Exaras
2020 	Common Flow 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Igor Matković, Kristijan Krajnčan
2020 	Rare Ebb 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Igor Matković, Kristijan Krajnčan
2019 	Punk You 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Eva Poženel, Achille Succi, Bojan Krhlanko
2019 	Swirling Blind Unstilled 	Klopotec Records 	Samo Salamon, Szilard Mezei, Jaka Berger
2019 	Free Sessions Vol. 2: Freequestra 	Klopotec Records 	Samo Salamon, Matija Krecic, Bostjan Simon, Achille Succi, Ziga Murko, Domen Gnezda, Vitja Balzalorsky, Marko Crncec, Goran Krmac, Bojan Krhlanko, Jaka Berger
2018 	Pure Magic 	Alessa Records 	Samo Salamon, Stefano Battaglia
2018 	Peaks of Light 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Howard Levy
2018 	Traveling Moving Breating 	Clean Feed Records 	Samo Salamon, Tony Malaby, Roberto Dani
2017 	Free Sessions Vol. 1: Planets of Kei	Not Two Records 	Samo Salamon, Achille Succi, Szilard Mezei
2017 	The Colours Suite 	Clean Feed Records 	Samo Salamon, Julian Arguelles, Achille Succi, Pascal Niggenkemper, Christian Lillinger, Roberto Dani
2016 	windS 	Klopotec Records 	Samo Salamon, Stefano Battaglia
2016 	Unity 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Julian Arguelles, John Hollenbeck
2015 	Little River 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Paul McCandless, Roberto Dani
2014 	Ives 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Manu Codjia, Mikkel Ploug
2014 	2 Alto 	Steeplechase Records 	Samo Salamon, Loren Stillman, John O'Gallagher, Roberto Dani
2014 	Orchestrology 	KGOSF Records 	Samo Salamon, Roberto Dani, Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra
2013 	Stretching Out 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Donny McCaslin, Dominique Pifarely, Bruno Chevillon, John Hebert, Gerald Cleaver, Roberto Dani
2012 	Eleven Stories 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Michel Godard, Roberto Dani
2011 	Duality 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Tim Berne, Achille Succi, Tom Rainey, Roberto Dani
2011 	Almost Almond 	Sanje Records 	Samo Salamon, Drew Gress, Tom Rainey
2009 	Live! 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Michel Godard, Roberto Dani
2008 	Mamasaal feat. Mark Turner 	Dometra Records 	Samo Salamon, Mark Turner, Matt Brewer, Aljoša Jerič
2007 	Fall Memories 	Splasc(h) Records 	Samo Salamon, Luciano Biondini, Michel Godard, Roberto Dani
2007 	Nano 	Goga Records 	Samo Salamon, Julian Arguelles, Michel Godard, Roberto Dani
2006 	Government Cheese 	Fresh Sound New Talent	Samo Salamon, David Binney, Josh Roseman, Mark Helias, Gerald Cleaver
2006 	Kei's Secret 	Splasc(h) Records 	Samo Salamon, Achille Succi, Carlo DeRosa, Tyshawn Sorey
2005 	Two Hours 	Fresh Sound New Talent	Samo Salamon, Tony Malaby, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey
2005 	Ela's Dream 	Splasc(h) Records 	Samo Salamon, Achille Succi, David Binney, Kyle Gregory, Paolino Dalla Porta, Zlatko Kaučič
2003 	Ornethology 	Samo Records 	Samo Salamon, Achille Succi, Salvatore Maiore, Zlatko Kaučič
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Category:1978 births
Category:Slovenian composers
Category:Slovenian jazz musicians
Category:Slovenian guitarists
Category:Slovenian people