Meet PCM’s new Jazz piano faculty member, Sam Hirsh. Read below to learn more about his global music experience, what he loves about teaching, the process behind creating his first album, Quite Frankly, and plans for his upcoming album – a rediscovery of his Asian American Identity. Click here to read about the Jazz Workshop he co-led with Danny Janklow earlier this summer.

What interested you in joining the PCM faculty and what are you most looking forward to?
I’ve lived in LA for 16 years, but recently moved to South Pasadena. Jazz Department chair, Amy Rowe, heard about my move and asked if I wanted to be a part of the PCM faculty. I’ve been teaching since I was 15 and have always loved it, but had only done one-on-one coaching. So I’m really excited this opportunity came up so I can work collaboratively with the other faculty and meet all these new people and musicians. PCM brings in such sweet, lovely students so it’s been great working with them. It’s a nice mix of great personalities.

You have a variety of teaching experiences starting at age 15. What inspired you to start teaching and what’s your favorite part about it?
I started performing at that same time, and people would come up to me after shows and ask for a lesson. Even though I was 15 and had never taught, I just said yes – and I loved it! I fell in love with talking to people and passing on this knowledge. It’s so cool to add a new skill to someone’s life and see them develop as a musician. I started with adults, then high school/college kids; then I added younger kids as well. It’s amazing and so special to watch them grow up and help them in any way I can.

You played with a variety of notable jazz musicians and groups, including your own trio, around LA and around the world. Do you have a favorite memory? Any highlights?
The LA gigs that I’ve played are so special. From playing as a leader in the Friday Jazz nights at LACMA to playing Bacchus’ Kitchen in Pasadena which was an honor because it’s a prestigious place to be asked to play. Other awesome experiences include playing at Disney Hall with the famous Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, playing at Verse in Toluca Lake with Terrace Martin, and then, recently, at Lincoln Center with another vocalist. I’ve also toured a lot and have taken my band all over the West Coast. There are just so many performances in venues that I’ve been really honored to be a part of.

One of my favorite memories is when I went to Bolivia with one of the OGs of jazz – the great Henry Franklin, a bass player who performed with a lot of my favorite musicians. We were chosen as ambassadors to spread jazz to Bolivia, a country less familiar with jazz. We played many sold-out, huge theaters, to people who loved it and admired Henry Franklin. It was so special to be a part of that. I had a similar experience in college going to Taiwan a couple of times as an Ambassador.

How has your international upbringing and experience playing and teaching abroad influenced your work as a performer and a teacher?

Right now I’m working on writing the music for my third album – it’s about rediscovering myself as an Asian American. I was born in Japan, am half-Japanese, and came to America when I was 6. I was the Asian kid in the back of the class that didn’t speak English. But also, there’s the experience of being half of something where you don’t really belong in either place because then I would go to a private Japanese school on Saturdays and they would make fun of me because they were all 100% Japanese and I wasn’t, so I never fit in.

But Japanese is my Mother Tongue, and I speak the language with no accent. I’ve been back to Japan many times since I was born, but I had an incredible experience when I was visiting last June. I went back to the house I was born in for the first time in 30 years. I still had memories from this house, and the neighbor who lived there when I was born was still there, and I knocked on her door – she still remembered me and even knew my name! It brought us both to tears. This beautiful experience moved me to reconnect with this identity and write this album.

Also, my first name is Sadamu, meaning “to become”, which perfectly represents this rediscovery. I’m really excited about this third record to make this identity a part of who I am as a person.

Your debut album, Quite Frankly-Introducing Sam Hirsh, released in 2020, has a ton of cool features on it and made it on JazzWeek Radio Chart’s top 20. Can you talk a little bit about what that album is and what its creation means to you?

It was my debut album, and I wrote all the songs and workshopped them around LA with my band for several years before recording. It was themed around family and growing up in Portland, Oregon. My dad plays saxophone, and I grew up playing in his band so for this theme of family, I chose to use very straight-ahead jazz.

The album features John Webber (bass) who’s an old family friend, a heartbeat of New York, and one of the greatest bass players on the planet; the great Kevin Kanner (drums) who’s from LA and had been workshopping these tunes with me; and Ralph Moore (saxophone) who’s an icon in the music word. When I befriended Ralph Moore, we had this instant connection and started playing at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach together. He’s one of my dad’s favorite saxophone players and played for all my favorite bands like Cedar Walton and Roy Haynes’s band –I had grown up listening to him. It was super special that he’s featured on the song in my album that’s dedicated to my dad.

This album tied in all these big themes like family, living in LA, and being a professional musician writing a certain type of music all to introduce me.

I hope that at the end of this life, I have this whole catalog of albums and you can go on Apple Music or Spotify and just see pages and pages of albums.

This interview was done on 6/24/24 and has been edited for length and clarity.