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Sam Yahel

American jazz musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ2216703
Source-derived summary

Sam Yahel (born 1971) is a jazz pianist and Hammond organist. In 1990 he moved to New York City and worked with Bill Frisell, Wycliffe Gordon, Ryan Kisor, Maceo Parker, Joshua Redman, and Brian Blade, among others.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

1996: Searchin' (Naxos, 1997)

1997: Trio (Criss Cross, 1999)

1999: In the Blink of an Eye (Naxos, 1999)

2005: Truth and Beauty (Origin, 2007)

2007: Hometown (Posi-Tone, 2009)

2011?: From Sun to Sun (Origin, 2011)

2025?: Quiet Flow (La Reserve, 2025)

As leader of Yaya3

With Joshua Redman and Brian Blade

Yaya3 (Loma, 2002)

Collaborations

With Nicholas Payton, Bob Belden, Billy Drummond and John Hart

Mysterious Shorter (Chesky, 2006)

With Ari Hoenig, Mike Moreno and Seamus Blake

Jazz Side of the Moon (Chesky, 2008) – rec. 2007

As sideman

With Ralph Bowen

2001: Soul Proprietor (Criss Cross Jazz, 2002)

2007: Five (Criss Cross Jazz, 2008)

With Norah Jones

2000–2001: Come Away with Me (Blue Note, 2002)

2003–2004: Feels Like Home (Blue Note, 2004)

Compilation: Covers (Blue Note, 2012)

With Ryan Kisor

1997: Battle Cry (Criss Cross Jazz, 1998)

2002: Awakening (Criss Cross Jazz, 2003)

2002: The Sidewinder (Videoarts, 2003)

2003: Donna Lee (Videoarts, 2004)

With Joshua Redman

Elastic (Warner Bros., 2002)

Momentum (Nonesuch, 2005)

With Jesse van Ruller

2002: Circles (Criss Cross Jazz, 2003)

2005: Views (Criss Cross Jazz, 2006)

With others

Laila Biali, Laila Biali (ACT Music, 2018)

Massimo Biolcati, Incontre (Bandcamp, 2020)

Peter Cincotti, On the Moon (Concord, 2004)

Larry Coryell, Impressions (Chesky, 2008)

Charles Davis, Plays the Music of Bent Jaeding (Fresh Sound, 2008)

Tia Fuller, Diamond Cut (Mack Avenue, 2018)

Wycliffe Gordon, Dig This!

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Sam Yahel” as american jazz musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yahel, American and jazz.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1990, 1996, 1997—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1970-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Yahel, American and jazz providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Sam Yahel”, the useful work is to connect “american jazz musician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2216703. VIAF identifies the subject as 69142426. The Library of Congress control number is no00024920. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1990, 1996 and 1997.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sam Yahel”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sam Yahel primary sources, Sam Yahel archive and Yahel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sam Yahel”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Sam Yahel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.