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WE ARE
AIRWAY RECORDS

A native of Switzerland, Sam Burckhardt came to Chicago at the invitation of Sunnyland Slim and played in his band for 13 year. He was a founding member of The Mighty Blue Kings. He performs with a wide array of artists, from blues legend Hubert Sumlin to jazz and dance great Othella Dallas. He is touring regular in the States and abroad.

AIRWAY RECORDS SINCE 1973

ARTISTS

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LUCAS MONTAGNIER/SAM BURCKHARDT

In July 2015, a young French guitarist named Lucas Montagnier went to the Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago to hear the Sunday night set featuring Joel Paterson and Chris Foreman.

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ONE ROOM BLUES

Sometimes great recordings happen for simple reasons. When Sam Burckhardt asked me to help him put a band together to play the 2017 Basel Blues festival,

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FLY OVER

One of the privileges of being a musician is that you get to work, play, and record with your friends. For this latest CD, I collaborated with extraordinary Chicago jazz and blues guitarist Joel Paterson.

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BOBOLINK

“Bobolink” marks twenty years since I released my first CD on Airway Records, Sunnyland Slim “Live in Europe – 1975”, and it is the tenth CD on my label.

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DUETS

Perhaps it’s merely a coincidence that this collection is titled Duets, when other musicians have titled albums with the same title.

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SUNNYLAND

A daughter and an elder statesman of the blues come together here in soulful celebration: Zora Young

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NACHTWANDLER

Ever since their first concert together at the Basel Cathedral in 2002, Stephan Grieder and Sam Burckhardt have given an annual concert in Basel.

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BOB IS BACK IN TOWN

Bob is back in town—but just to rest a bit.

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ONCE FOREVER

This recording features three musicians from Basel, Switzerland. I have had the pleasure of working with Oliver Friedli and Dominik Schürmann for many years, now, and usually perform with them while on tour in Switzerland. 

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TRIO

This small gem features Dan Nimmer on piano, alongside with Jake Vinsel on Bass. At the time of this recording, we were regularly playing together, in Chicago, and went on tour to Switzerland. 

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A WALK IN TIME

There may be no second acts in American lives, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, but for Swiss native Sam Burckhardt, the more acts, the merrier.

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CHICAGO SWING

“Sam’s saxophone style shows that he’s got people like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins on his mind as much as he does anyone from Mississippi; he flows like water over the solid comping of Sunnyland and the well-oiled band behind him,” David Whitheis wrote in the Chicago Reader.

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LIVE IN EUROPE 1975

These sides, recorded at Caphörnli in Grenzach, Germany on April 23, 1975, present an intimate look at one of the world’s foremost blues musicians at the peak of his form. 

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