The Hi-Stakes

The Hi-Stakes, featuring their iconic frontman Sam Ghezzi, is a quintet based in Amsterdam. The band makes the audience jump, dance and shout to Rhythm and Blues inspired by Louis Jordan, dream away to the sweet sound of
Blues Ballads in the heritage of Percy Mayfield and shake the hips to the boogaloos of Blue Note Records of the late 50's.

Original tunes, with lyrics full of irony and passion, played authentically from a vast range of popular genres of the time, be it a lyrical blues ballad or an explosive old school rhythm 'n blues number; in other words, their repertoire covers anything in between the jazz and the blues worlds.

The Hi-Stakes features Sam Ghezzi on vocals and tenor saxophone, Frank Groenendijk on tenor saxophone, Linus Eppinger on guitar, César Puente on upright bass and Joe Korach on drums. The particular combination of two tenor saxophones as horn section shows their own timber and sound in a unique and distinctive way.


“Sam somehow performs the hat trick of creating original
music (and lyrics) that clearly evokes a bygone era
(specifically the Jazz golden age that flowered from the early
1930’s to the late 1940’s), yet manages to sidestep both the
easy retro cliches and the excessive piety of many revivalists,
both of which only serve to keep Jazz safely sanitized, tucked
away in a museum’s display case.
”
-Matt Munisteri

" W H E R E T H E I R S T Y L E V I N T A G E M E E T S S O U N D V I S U A L - I L S O U N D "
– A B A N D T H A T M A T C H E S
W I T H A P E R F E C T L Y T A I L O R E D
I D E N T I T Y
D O L O M I T I

"VINTAGE VIBES WITH A
MODERN PUNCH" – A
UNIQUE BLEND OF
LYRICAL BLUES BALLADS
AND OLD SCHOOL
RHYTHM & BLUES
(HAARLEMSE
STADSGLOSSY).