Sambambo

Sambambo is a sax-player and singer-songwriter whose bouncy joy for music is infectious. Threading through her performance is a deep love for jazz and Black American Music, and she’s not afraid to be vulnerable on and offstage, talking openly about living with bipolar disorder, existing alongside grief and love in the queer community.

She’s appeared at Greenbelt for the last three years, leading her own band on the Canopy and Orchard stages, and making mainstage appearances alongside Palestine’s Bashar Murad and drag queen Flamy Grant. Recently she’s performed at the Royal Albert Hall’s Great Exhibition Road Festival, Gottwood Festival, Ronnie Scott’s, the Southbank Centre, and is a busy session saxophonist up and down the UK.

In July last year, she independently produced and released her debut single ‘The Absence Of You’. In addition to sell-out shows at Piano Smithfield London and the Folklore Rooms Brighton, Sambambo’s new single featured on BBC Radio 3 and in an indie feature film, although she was particularly proud to learn it was doing the rounds at a number of house parties in Bristol. In March, Sambambo returned to the UK after a month with her trio in New Orleans. She’s currently preparing for the release of her debut EP (mini-album), whilst teaching a bit of piano and performing at the evenings and weekends… although it’s church bells on Sunday mornings, followed by sax in a cosy pub corner on a Sunday afternoon.

A Greenbelter since birth, Sambambo still volunteers on one of the Greenbelt stewarding teams. But, she’s also a dynamic saxophonist with a voice like melting butter, and an emerging independent artist whose songs we love. We can’t wait to have her band at Greenbelt again, this year for the first time on mainstage.