Pack Of Six Biographies
Sam
Writer, Producer, Saxer
Pack of Six was formed by sax player and song writer Sam in late 2005, as a desperate course of music therapy and wake up call to escape his meaningless life working in the City of London. The original concept was a 6 piece instrumental funk band featuring fender rhodes, double bass, drums and a 3 piece horn section. It quickly became clear that these first compositions were becoming songs, and since the original conception Sam has performed this material in all manners of line-ups and sizes, the name just stuck. Luckily, Sam has an incredible 6 pack hidden somewhere under his belly and thus the justification is complete. After the success of the first album, which featured Natalie Williams and Victoria Newton, and following an intensive year of musical study, Sam's writing has truly matured and he is fully established himself as a purveyor of heavy funk grooves and simple folk songs. Nicknamed "the death star", Sam's fully operational studio in Hackney now has him established as one of London's finest young producing / song writing / horn section providing / sax playing jazz freaks. He has recently provided horn section arrangements and recordings for Ben Taylor and Peter Conway's new albums, and works regularly developing young singers in the studio, knocking out hip but commercially viable jazz tunes. He hopes.
The Singers
Vocal Treats
Since the beginning of time, Sam has not been able to sing particularly nicely, well not since his voice broke back in the day. Like some kind of crazy jazz funk ventriloquist, Sam specialises in luring fresh young talent back to his studio for collaborations. Past hook-ups have included the incredible Natalie Williams, Victoria Newton, and Chloe Morgan, who features on some of the more recent studio recordings. While Chloe is otherwise engaged in her student activities at music college, the ever expanding vocal family now includes a fresh set: Hannah, Lei and Yvette - 3 young and gifted soulful sisters from East London. Look out for these 3 on the latest round of live gigs, the group are already turning heads with their powerful vocal performances and electrical stage presence.
The Rest
Keys, Bass, Guitar, Drums, Live Beats, Horns etc
Yes, it's true, Pack Of Six is not always a six piece band, it morphs around like, well, morph. The band can go out as a full live funk band, or with small acoustic / intimate vibe, and finally as a club DJ / live PA set. The remainder of the recorded and live line-up draws from a pool of professional session and touring musicians, whose current and previous projects include:
Newton Faulkner, Carly Simon, Ben Taylor, Jamie Cullum, Just Jack, Paul McCartney, The Heritage Orchestra, Ty, Bugs In The Attic, The F-IRE Collective, Nate James, Urusen, Imperial Leisure, Jools Holland, Drew Horley, and so forth until the end of time itself...
Other family members on the second album so far can be found using the links at the top of this very page. We all share the common belief that things should laid be down, behind the beat, beautiful but groovy, artistic yet entertaining, shabby but "right", serious but jokes.