Sam Butler is a professional jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger and educator based in Bloomington, IN. He has performed all around the Midwest with various ensembles including the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Sean Dobbins and the Modern Jazz Messengers, and his own Folklore Sextet. As the winner of the 2023 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Solo Competition and with his debut album “Folklore” out with positive reviews in May of 2023, Sam has “an abundance of jazz success coming his way.” (Debbie Burke) He is immersed in the blending of musical styles including rock, classical music, folk, and jazz, and is creating a unique voice as he enters the modern jazz scene.
Sam began work as a jazz education curriculum developer, transcriber, arranger, and composer with Playbook Music in July of 2023. He is also an Associate Instructor in the Jazz Department of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University while completing his Master’s degree in Jazz Studies. Following the release of Folklore in May of 2023, Sam toured with his Folklore Sextet in the summer of 2023 at venues all around the Midwest, including Cliff Bell’s in Detroit, the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, and Fulton Street Collective in Chicago.
Sam quickly flourished as a performer, composer and arranger after beginning his academic career at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2018. He was named a semi- finalist in the Jazz Division of the 2019 and 2020 National Trumpet Competition, and performed with the Plummer Jazz Sextet, a select group of musicians that writes original music, plays shows around the Midwest, and records. Sam has also
recorded and performed a dozen of his own large ensemble compositions and arrangements with ensembles at IU, and during his undergraduate tenure, recorded an EP of all original compositions with his sextet “Spoken Thoughts,” which was released in early 2022. Sam completed his undergraduate studies in 2022, and accepted an Associate Instructor position in the jazz department to earn his master’s degree.
