Sam Dickey
Guitar, West African Guitar, Ngoni
Sunset Park
Growing up in the contrasting environments of Northstate California and West Africa, Sam Dickey first started playing guitar at age ten. Over the following years he played and absorbed a diverse array of music including jazz, rock, soul, and the musical traditions of Mali and Guinea. After studying with musicians such as Dave Santoro, Rick Peckham, Hal Crook, and Dave Tronzo, Sam returned to West Africa, studying guitar and ngoni (a traditional West African lute) intensely with virtuoso African musicians such as Djelimady Tounkara, Mama Sissoko, Fantamady Kouyaté, and Ganda Tounkara. Sam now performs and teaches in New York. His performance experience includes everything from appearances with jazz luminaries Joshua Redman, Adam Rogers, and John Ellis, to playing in rock and funk bands in San Francisco, to a six-month stint playing with kora master Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra in Bamako, Mali.
Photo credit: Jack Hirschorn
AS A TEACHER
Sam builds his approach around each individual student. The focus and direction of lessons is guided by a student's particular interests and goals. Depending on the student, lessons may focus on any of a broad range of topics including improvisation in different genres, study of jazz standards, guitar technique, composition and arranging, harmony and theory, creativity and finding a voice, sight-reading, or West African repertoire on either guitar or ngoni. The idea of this approach is to teach students in a way that they remain engaged and invested what they are learning, so that study and practice become fulfilling and enjoyable. Through his approach, Sam helps students become the musicians they want to be and find their own sound in any given style.
Get Started with BML to set up a lesson with Sam.
Bazoumana Sissoko, Ahmad Jamal, John Coltrane, Toumani Diabate, Bjork, Jim Hall, Lester Young, Ornette Coleman, Jimi Hendrix, Bassekou Kouyate, Radiohead, Elis Regina, Thelonious Monk, Ali Farka Toure, Bon Iver, Bill Evans, Lennie Tristano, Toninho Horta, Ballake Sissoko, John Scofield, Duke Ellington, Djelimady Tounkara, Mississippi John Hurt, Bouba Sacko, Bill Frisell, Milton Nascimento, Ben Webster, Paul Motian, Mama Sissoko, Sonny Clark
