His work is diverse and includes significant collaborations with a wide range of artists including Ry Cooder, Blake Mills, Sam Amidon, Perfume Genius, Moses Sumney, Knower, Vampire Weekend, and inc. He is most known for his work with the saxophone, though he is proficient on multiple instruments.

Sam Gendel is a musician and producer living in Los Angeles, CA. 'His songs are just a little too psychedelic to sit in the contemporary jazz section, but his music is as studied and controlled as his counterparts in post-bop.' 'In the spirit of Miles Davis or late-career John Coltrane,' says Fader, 'Gendel aspires to a transcendent form of jazz.' KCRW says: 'Sam Gendel makes poetry in musical motion speaks to our time and beyond.' “Sam Gendel plays like a student at the altar of spiritual jazz,' says Pitchfork. The album features three musicians-Gendel on saxophone, Gabe Noel on electric bass, and Philippe Melanson on electronic percussion-engaging in simultaneous synchronized sonic construction/deconstruction of jazz standards, including Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader,” Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” and Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” A Gendel-produced video for the album track “Afro Blue” by Mongo Santamaria may be seen below.

Recorded in Gendel’s native California, Satin Doll is a futuristic homage to historical jazz. “Write To Your Brother' contains elliptical allusions to a mother treating a song “like a lover.' Hadreas’s life is a catalog of remembered pain and sadness, and this album is an indelible testament to that.Sam Gendel’s Nonesuch Records debut album, Satin Doll, will be released March 13, 2020. “Gay Angels' is a gorgeous soundscape of layered organs and synths. Peterson' is the seemingly innocuous tale of a high school teacher turned inside-out. Mostly simple vocal and piano, the minor-key melodies work their way into your brain and stick there. This extraordinary debut album explores that world through home-recorded songs that bring to mind early Cat Power, Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens and Pink Moon-era Nick Drake. The entirety of all these experiences: abuse, addiction, suicide, all that cool stuff, I couldn’t bear to look at it.” Hadreas explains: “I spent my whole life hiding from the things that happened to me, to my family and friends. Even though he is only in his 20s, Mike Hadreas, aka Seattle’s Perfume Genius, has a story with the twists and turns of a person who has seen a lot of darkness.

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