Sam grew up in Bristol and throughout the 90’s, immersed himself in the trip-hop and jungle scenes hearing Roni Size, Massive Attack, Goldie, Horace Andy, Portishead and many other incredible artists that were blaring from the club and bar sound systems and a heavy dose of dub reggae at St Paul’s Carnival every summer.  Simultaneously he was learning classical piano. Jazz came late in his teens when he discovered a parents stash of jazz records at a friends house in ’96. He moved to London in 2001 to study Linguistics at UCL before deciding to study Jazz at Trinity College Of Music. He graduated in 2006 with a Bmus Hons.

Since then he has gone on to write, record and perform with some of the worlds most exciting musicians including Little Simz, Cleo Sol, The Cinematic Orchestra, Lianne La Havas, Jordan Rakei, Goldie, Mark Guiliana, Rosie Lowe, The Invisible, Matthew Herbert, FATIMA (Eglo) and Valerie June.  He has toured many nooks and crannies of the earth including Japan, Thailand, Russia, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Australia and more performing at venues and festivals such as Sydney Opera House, Coachella, Glastonbury, Womad, Brixton Academy, Queen Elizabeth Hall, grand European concert halls and many small and sacred jazz clubs on both grand piano and electric pianos and synthesizers.

As a band leader, he has been widely recognized as an exciting presence on the jazz scene since his critically acclaimed debut album, Synaesthesia (F-IRE 2010),

Sam’s second studio album as leader Towards the Centre of Everything (and debut WWR release), features a set of original compositions by Sam and a true mash of styles, epic colours and moods with improvisation as it’s focus, boasting a line up of some of the most influential and cutting edge improvisers in the world. Recorded in two days at the famed Systems Two Studios in NYC, the album features Crowe on Piano, Fender Rhodes & Keyboards, NYC-based Will Vinson (Rufus Wainwright, Sting, Gonzalo Rubalcaba) on Alto Saxophone, the Award winning London-based Adam Waldmann (Kairos 4tet) on Soprano Saxophone, rising star British guitarist Will Davies, the multi-faceted Alan Hampton (Andrew Bird, Gretchen Parlato, Robert Glasper) on both double & electric bass, and the inimitable  Mark Guiliana (David Bowie, Meshell Ndegocello, Donny McCaslin).

Since Towards The Centre of Everything, Sam has gone on to develop a new band that continues with the premise of dissolving boundaries.  Native Dancer  fuses elements from many genres and for the first time shows Sam’s voice as producer as well as keyboardist and composer. They have released 2 EP’s and debut album TIDES is due for release 23/10/20.

As writer and producer and keyboardist, since 2017 Sam has contributed to new albums by Little Simz (No Thank You),  Lianne La Havas (Slef Titled), Yazmin Lacey (Voice Notes), Jordan Rakai (Origin), Rosie Lowe (YU) and many other exciting projects in the works……

Sam has also composed music for films including songs for French/Canadian production ‘Lullaby For Pi’ starring Forrest Whittaker, Clemence Poesy and Rupert Friend. He has also scored pictures including Rupert Friend’s short ‘STEVE’ starring Colin Firth and Keira Knightley.

Sam works out of his London studio, The Crowe’s Nest