Guitar
Baltimore guitarist, composer, and educator Sam Farthing has dedicated his life—all 20 years of it—to the mastery and preservation of the traditions of Gypsy jazz and swing. Beginning his musical journey as a classical guitarist, Sam gravitated towards the music of Sinti swing guitarist Django Reinhardt, and began immersing himself completely in the style. For a taste of that, here he is backstage at Django-A-Gogo LA, 2023, jamming with Josh Kaye on a Django composition, Dinette.
Over the last seven years, Samuel has studied and performed with some of the world’s top gypsy jazz guitarists including Stochelo and Mozes Rosenberg, Fapy Lafertin, Tchavolo and Samson Schmitt. He has already performed at some of the world’s most prestigious gypsy jazz festivals across the world including Django sur Lennon, Djangofest Mill Valley, Django a Gogo, Charm City Django Jazz Fest and Djangofest Northwest. Here he is at the latter in 2021 performing Stochelo Rosenberg’s, “Listen”. We suggest you do just that.
Last year I (Andrew) was wandering through the Smith College campus and happened upon Sam being interviewed by Denis Chang for one of Denis’ inimitable social media posts. Given the role Denis has taken on through his DC Music School, he has seen just about everyone of note playing jazz manouche from Montreal to Taiwan. Check out his response to Sam’s playing. And if you have a couple minutes to spare, stick around for my music-free impromptu interview with Denis on that occasion as well.