sideman
Americannoun
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an instrumentalist in a band or orchestra.
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an instrumentalist supporting a soloist or a principal performer.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sideman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Roy Ayers was born in Los Angeles in 1940 and by his mid-20s had become an in-demand sideman as a vibraphonist.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
He is more flamboyant as a sideman with the trumpeter Jaimie Branch and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and in his longstanding association with trumpeter Rob Mazurek in various permutations of the ensemble Chicago Underground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
The main distinction is that Esposito is the lead as opposed to the sideman, a designation that he should have received much earlier in his career.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024
The cellist remained busy with various sideman appearances and collaborations until the early ’90s, when he retired for good, later citing health issues and an overall feeling of burnout.
From New York Times ● May 1, 2023
The Committee-man hath a sideman, or rather a setter, hight a Sequestrator, of whom you may say, as of the great Sultan's horse, where he treads the grass grows no more.
From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various
These five musicians are acclaimed bandleaders and sought-after sidemen, sometimes in each other’s ensembles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
With his head-turning mastery of seemingly any instrument with strings, Mr. Lindley became one of the most sought-after sidemen in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023
On the road, his sidemen would rib him as he fed jukeboxes to hear weepers like “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2021
Seattle is also where Frisell met one of his regular sidemen, viola player Eyvind Kang, and where he became fast friends with cartoonists Gary Larson and Jim Woodring, both of whom he has collaborated with.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 18, 2019
Accordingly the act-books tell their interesting story of ministers on beginning service sending wardens and sidemen abroad to command men to come to church.
From The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects by Ware, Sedley Lynch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
