Home » Jazz Articles » Profile » 20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Xavier Lecouturier
20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Xavier Lecouturier
Ray Charles
piano and vocals1930 - 2004
Quincy Jones
arranger1933 - 2024
Ernestine Anderson
vocals1928 - 2016
Jelly Roll Morton
piano1890 - 1941
Joe Venuti
violin1903 - 1978
Larry Coryell
guitar1943 - 2017
Julian Priester
tromboneb.1935
Randy Brecker
trumpetb.1945
With this series of features, I will introduce you to twenty jazz musicians currently living and working in Seattle. It is not to be seen as any sort of ranking, it has no positional value in that regard. It is simply an effort to introduce the jazz world at large to the vibrance and innovative nature of the jazz scene in and around the jewel city of Seattle, Washington.
17. Xavier Lecouturier
If you have ventured out to jazz performances and sessions in Seattle over the past three years, you have no doubt witnessed the precipitous uptick in young, talented musicians and composers appearing on the scene. You have seen trumpeterNoah Halpern
trumpet
Ben Feldman
bassb.1999
Dylan Hayes
keyboardsAbbey Blackwell
bass
Xavier Lecouturier
drumsLecouturier's abilities have soared at a considerable rate since his decision to begin playing drums during his junior year of high school in his hometown of San Rafael, California. Currently age 22, he has been playing for a mere six years. In that time, he has earned a jazz performance degree from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, spent a year in the quintet of trumpeter Thomas Marriott, and released an album centering on his original compositions on the highly regarded Origin Records label. Entitled Carrier (Origin, 2019), Lecouturier is joined by many of the new generation players he has had the good fortune to encounter during his time in Seattle. The recording earned him a four star review from All About Jazz, and has a worldwide reach due to his association with Origin.
A young guitarist raised on Latin rock in the Canal District of San Rafael, Lecouturier took to the drums and knew his fate was attached to them almost immediately. He began to play and write music with his friend, pianist Dylan Hayes. They would forge a partnership that exists to this day, writing and performing for DX-Tet, their ensemble that can be as small as a quartet, or as large as an octet. The exposure at Cornish to mentors such as
Jovino Santos Neto
pianob.1954
Dawn Clement
pianoJim Knapp
composer / conductor
Johnaye Kendrick
vocalsHis education as a jazz musician took a sharp left turn at the age of 20, when trumpeter
Thomas Marriott
trumpetb.1975
"I think I got more than what I could have imagined really. I don't know what I was expecting. I wanted to go to school, study music and play, but I didn't really know what would happen. What I really got out of it was being in Seattle and hanging on the scene. Coming to the session at the Owl 'n Thistle, checking out Tom Marriott, hanging out with Dawn Clement. That's what I got out of it," he says.
It was Clement who directed Lecouturier to Marriott, and fast-tracked his career in rapid fire fashion. "She hooked me up with everybody and just told me what was up," he recalls. With Marriott, he was presented with the task of playing for a veteran bandleader and meeting the demands, thereof.
"It's a funny thing, I always felt nervous on the bandstand with him, which was great. I was uncomfortable, I always had to please what he needed. There's two sides of that coin-I have to do what he needs and I have to like it. I learned so much from doing that, I'd never had that experience before. I'm so grateful," he says humbly.
Lecouturier was mentored extensively by noted Seattle based drummer John Bishop, who also runs Origin Records. That association led to the decision to release his music on the highly regarded, Seattle based label. It strengthened his connection to the Seattle jazz community, and gave the album a huge kick-start on an international scale.
"For me it's like a community thing. I want to be part of that circle of people, bouncing ideas off of each other. I want to be part of that thing. I don't want to put out some record that's not attached to anything. I want to be in touch with these musicians. I've been here for a long time, it's important to me," he stresses.
Lecouturier creates dense, harmonically complex music as a composer. It challenges even the best musicians to solo freely within the shifting time signatures and layered harmony. As a drummer, he pushes the music at will, his polyrhythms accenting angular melodic lines. Being surrounded by pianist/composers such as Hayes, Santos Neto, and
Marina Albero
pianob.1979
"I really just try to write what I hear. Sing it, sing it again, hear it work. Keep working it out. Pianists like Dylan (Hayes) have so much knowledge of their instrument, and I must rely so much on the drum set. I think what I'm good at is using my intuition, and my ears," he explains.
Lecouturier will be taking his music out on the road this year, and dealing with the reality of being a bandleader in this modern age. What jazz fans will witness will be a shape-shifting drummer with global chops who has paid his dues the right way. They will see his dynamic playing and get inside his deeply original sound. They will be treated to a man of unusual humility and grace. Let's hope the rest of the new wave in jazz is as promising.
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Profiles
Xavier Lecouturier
Paul Rauch
United States
Washington
Seattle
Noah Halpern
Ben Feldman
Dylan Hayes
Serena Albero
Abbey Blackwell
Santosh Sharma
Lucas Winter
Jovino Santos Neto
Dawn Clement
Jim Knapp
Johnaye Kendrick
Thomas Marriott
20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know
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