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Jazz Articles » Profile » Xavier Lecouturier: Focus in Constant Motion
Understand that what some may perceive as indecision or confusion is actually the surveillance of a landscape more varied and expansive than many perceive.
Paul Rauch
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data-original-title=”” title=””>Xavier Lecouturier typifies the plight of brilliant young jazz musicians on the horizon in the twenty-first century. While the talent pool in jazz music has never been more prodigious, it faces major challenges in terms of work availability and when it is available, earning a living wage in the process. The current generation of jazz brilliance is as well burdened by coming of age in an era when the recording industry is completely under the thumb of corporate interests to the point where making a record is an expense rather than an income provider. While the new wave of musicians such as Lecouturier,
Immanuel Wilkins
saxophone, alto
b.1997
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Joel Ross,
Nicole Glover
saxophone, tenor
b.1991
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Nicole Glover and
Sarah Hanahan
saxophone, alto
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Sarah Hanahan are releasing albums gaining four and five star reviews, major labels are mostly paying the bills after reaping the profits of classic album releases in all formats. When given a choice, many consumers are putting their dollars and listening time into recordings from the 1950’s and 1960’s rather than current timesand that is unfortunate. The truth is that despite all of the aforementioned obstacles, there is more prolific talent and recorded music now than there has ever been. The sounds of young, modern artists can be found not only in major clubs and on major labels, but more generously in small back room bars on Thursday nights, or on indie labels that are prominent in every region of the jazz world.
In the case of Lecouturier, his time in Seattle has been a flurry of activity that saw a diversion during the pandemic years, only to blossom in ways unimaginable upon his graduation from Cornish College of the Artsthe reason he ventured to Seattle from his native digs in the Bay Area of California in the first place. At Cornish, Lecouturier fell into a community of sound with lifelong friend and pianist, ”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Dylan Hayes and Alaska born and bred guitarist
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Martin Budde, as well as outstanding then high school musicians in bassist
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Ben Feldman, saxophonist
Santosh Sharma
saxophone, tenor
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Santosh Sharma and trumpeter ”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Noah Halpern. He received high end mentorship on the drum kit, an instrument he had taken up just a year earlier during his senior year of high school in San Rafael, California. Trailblazing drummer
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>John Bishop, who had established an original sound in the trios of
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Hal Galper,
Jessica Williams
piano
1948 – 2022
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Jessica Williams and
Chano Dominguez
piano
b.1960
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Chano Dominguez among others, provided huge insights for the then nineteen year old drummer in terms of technique and integrating his sound into a group context.
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Ted Poor gave him a sense of fearlessness that is ignited each time he plays, no matter the musical circumstance. Impromptu sessions with the visiting
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Matt Wilson at Cornish gave him insights about the kit itself, and how to visualize its function in context.
“He changed a lot for me,” recalls Lecouturier. “Hanging out with Matt Wilson at Cornish was really transformative for me. He made me think about the drums differently, fitting into the melody, little stuff like that.”
While still a student at Cornish, Lecouturier became a member of the quintet led by trumpeter
Thomas Marriott
trumpet
b.1975
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Thomas Marriott, a prominent internationally acclaimed artist who is a native Seattleite that had spent time in New York and returned to the Emerald City. The author of fourteen albums as a leader taught the young drummer how to be a professional, the basic things like showing up on time and being prepared. In essence, he introduced him to accountability in all phases of professional life. Lecouturier, then fully immersed in composing as well, was essentially learning the ropes of his inevitable task as a bandleader. He was also the beneficiary of time spent with an excellent Cornish staff that included pianist
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Dawn Clement, vocalist
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Johnaye Kendrick, pianist /composer
Jovino Santos Neto
piano
b.1954
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Jovino Santos Neto and the legendary trombonist,
Julian Priester
trombone
b.1935
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Julian Priester.
In August of 2018, while still just twenty years old, Lecouturier entered the studio and recorded tracks of his original compositions created during his time in Seattle. Those tracks resulted in the release of Carrier (Origin, 2019) on the highly acclaimed, Seattle based Origin Records label. The recording received highly positive reviews on a national scale. It would be a harbinger of things to come.
Lecouturier’s original decision to study at Cornish in Seattle was made easier with Hayes’ decision to do the same. The two had become fast friends growing up in Marin County, and had similar visions of what they wanted to accomplish at the historically acclaimed Seattle institution. While Lecouturier was a newcomer to his instrument, he knew from the first time he sat down behind a kit, that he would be putting down his then dedication to the guitar and immersing himself in jazz percussion. Hayes was an accomplished pianist with a composer’s ear and a penchant for composition and arrangements. The similarity in upbringing would serve as a bridge to friendship for these two young men with similar aspirations musically, but diametrically different personalities and visions of the world in front of them.
Marin County lies on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, tied to the bohemian metroplex that is San Francisco. While it has become known as a high end repository of wealthy tech moguls, it is as well a gathering spot for counterculture, the place where the social revolution of the 1960’s settled via the “back to the land” movement that sprang to life in reaction to the popularity and commercialization of the Haight-Ashbury scene in San Francisco. Lecouturier was raised in the area centered around the Marin town of San Rafael, home in many ways to the sounds that had evolved in the subterranean environment of the Bay, The Grateful Dead, Santana and other Bay area stars had settled in and around the area to escape the madness of the post-idyllic naivete of the Haight.
Lecouturier’s family was not part of that culture, nor was their son influenced by its massive pull. He was raised by first generation Americans looking for a new life that had everything to do with family and nothing to do with the frenetically interesting cultural history of the area they chose to begin their American experience.
“I was pretty sheltered. My parents were first generationmy mom came from Mexico, my dad from France. They sheltered us a lot. We were outside, that’s where we weremy dad’s been surfing all his life, we went surfing all the time. My mom is a hikerthat’s what we were doing. I got into music late. I started playing drums my senior year of high school, super late,” recalls Lecouturier. That attachment with the natural world is something the young drummer would take with him forward, impacting life decisions every bit as much as his art, inspiring every aspect of his being.
When the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying shutdown hit in 2020, a collective decision was made between Lecouturier and his newfound Seattle friends to sequester themselves in Budde’s familial digs in Big Lake, Alaska to ride out the storm of the one hundred year pandemic. Hayes, Feldman and Halpern decided to be a part of this continuum, eventually dubbing the collective as Meridian Odyssey. They would play music together, explore the wilds of Alaska together, and ultimately, contact the virus together in isolation. Lecouturier for his part, would follow his personality that tends to lean towards hyper-focus and accomplishment. He learned how to sail, and with the assistance of Budde’s father, a genuine Alaskan bush pilot, learned how to fly and received his pilot’s license in the process. While so much of the world was biding their time in social isolation, Lecouturier was enriching his soul, discovering things that mattered to him deeply in the natural world and outside of music.
The Budde family compound included an airplane hangar that housed the plane Budde’s dad owned and operated as a commercial pilot. There, the collective would play hours upon hours each day, composing new music and forming a brotherhood musically that evolved into a family-like relationship personally. Eventually, they would put together a recording environment in the hangar that would produce recordings originally referred to as the “hangar sessions.” Those efforts would result in two albums released on the Origin Records imprint. Second Wave (Origin,2021), recorded in August of 2020 during the height of the worldwide pandemic was just the beginning, Still bound by relentless energy and creative impulse, the sextet was unable to perform live, to live their lives in a state of normalcy in their chosen locals. After some modifications and improvements to their makeshift studio in the hangar, the band recorded Earthshine (Origin, 2022) almost exactly a year later. In early 2024, Budde would release tracks he laid down in the same environment in trio with Feldman and Lecouturier. The drummer was the chief recording engineer for Backburner (Origin, 2024), ending a unique period in the lives of these six, very talented musicians continuing to create and produce great music under historically dire circumstances.
Over the past four years, Lecouturier has established himself as one of the most active, creative and productive jazz artists in Seattle. His efforts in the Pacific Northwest have an international reach due to connections made directly in the jazz community in Seattle. When the pandemic relented prior to the arrival of the Delta variant in August of 2021, he was one of the first local artists to venture out and try to get things moving forward again in his now city of choice. He reignited the traditional Tuesday night jam session at the Owl in Pioneer Square, and gradually managed to get musicians and audience members alike out of their Netflix catacombs and back into the night on the local jazz scene. When activities began to resemble normalcy in 2022, he remained highly visible on the scene, not through his words, but through his activity and relentless drive to shed the binds of those perilous two years to advance his young career forward. That would lead to the inevitable question that young jazz musicians face across the country, or for that matter, around the globe. Do I take a shot at living in New York? The actual capital city of jazz is a passageway for sure, with connections to be made, and the acquisition of accountability living and playing with the best players on the planet. Everything available for Lecouturier in Seattle would increase exponentially, as would the competition for those opportunities.
The pilgrimage to Gotham is not what it used to be, largely due to what is happening in coastal America at largethe economic realities of soaring costs to survive, much less thrive in the city as a musician. Affordable housing is becoming scarce in the former enclaves surrounding the city that previously avoided high Manhattan rents. From Jersey City to Long Island, Manhattan prices are taking over. Many young musicians in the city are partly dependent on family for support, and most are working day jobs to get by. Those sequestered in the royal digs of Juilliard, MSM or the New School live a life supported by education for the time it lasts. It’s not an easy choice for a musician to go to New York in the first place, and a tougher one once the reality of making ends meet becomes apparent. For Lecouturier, that decision is complicated by a number of factors. Meridian Odyssey bandmates Halpern, Feldman and Sharma were students in New York pre-pandemic, and have returned there as post-grad students or musicians trying their hand at success in Gotham. Then there is that juxtaposition in his life where art, music, flow and the natural world fit together in his vision of what a healthy lifestyle looks like.
With half of his bandmates three thousand miles across the country, Lecouturier responded after their Alaskan adventure by purchasing and living in a sailboat moored in Seattle. His love of the natural world, spawned by his upbringing on the coast of California and embellished by his life in the northwest, loomed as a huge factor in his happiness. A lifestyle that merged that world with the urban realities and needs of an inspired professional jazz musician was possible in Seattle, while completely impossible in New York. As he turned twenty six in September, he was now a partner in his second boat, a stunning thirty seven foot vessel that he was slowly mastering to captain. He felt a freedom when out on the waters of Salish Sea that resonated much in the same way as the liberated vibe of playing music with the wide swath of musicians he had vibed with in Seattle. The New York pilgrimage taken by many was becoming more of a remote image.
“To be honest, I don’t know if I really want to do it. I love being on the water, I love being outside,” he recites gently, shaking his head. “I might go to New York for a month. I found a boat project I’m going to work on in Floridato bring the boat back to Seattle and flip it. That sounds like a great thing for me now, to just go do it, take a little break. The music will always be there. It’s nothing dramatic, just a little break.” A break to enable a step forward musically. A break to draw inspiration from the zen of doing things to enable inspiration and happiness that would surely impact how he feels about music. As an artist that tends to lean more to the compositional side, the importance of following the path of happiness was inherently huge.
That little break may have to wait, considering the large stash of irons in the fire that occupy his near future. Lecouturier’s summer included a west coast tour with Meridian Odyssey, with an Oakland recording session at its conclusion. The recording is done, ready to be mixed. He has recorded his next solo album, which is awaiting the final mix as well. The Seattle recorded session is all new original compositions, with dense harmony and sparkling melodies providing multitudes of jumping off points for improvisation. Hayes’ trio record with bassist Stanley Ruvinov is in the mix, as well as a November date in the studio with DX Tet, an octet that features original pieces from Hayes and Lecouturier.
Two major projects are also in the making due in large part to his musical relationship and friendship with Seattle based, Barcelona born pianist,
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Marina Albero. This past summer of 2024, Lecouturier, Hayes and Budde ventured to Barcelona to record with Albero’s daughter Serena who they had befriended during her residence in Seattle. The project was recorded in the studio of Spanish flamenco / jazz legend Chano Dominguez and includes the master pianist on synthesizers. Serena Albero is featured on vocals.
November will see Lecouturier in the studio on drums with Marina Albero on piano and Shakti violinist
”
data-original-title=”” title=””>Ganesh Rajagopalan for a project that includes tablas and Indian percussion along with more traditional jazz trappings. The project was performed live during Albero’s 2021 residency at the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle. It allowed Lecouturier to interact with a whole new world of rhythm and cadence, something experienced throughout the band as well. The performance was like a long cultural embrace. Albero for her part, is a world of music in herself, with her piano style providing glimpses of flamenco, Afro-Cuban and jazz mosaics intertwined with her classical training and exceptional ear for new, exciting sounds. Her influence on Lecouturier cannot be overstated.
Since first encountering Lecouturier as a nineteen year old student at Cornish College of the Arts, the city of Seattle has witnessed an artist in constant motion, willing to probe this great music with full impunity, without fear, while showing a unique and mature grasp of community in the process. He has served as a catalyst for many of his musical alliances, both musically and socially. His energy is fully engaged with intent, producing amazing results along the way. But with that type of drive and intent comes the need for repose at certain intervals. Go do something else, be something else. Allow the rest of the world to catch up a bit, as your journey is propelled by sonic bursts uncommon to most. Know that the results in the end will impart beauty and wisdom. Understand that what some may perceive as indecision or confusion is actually the surveillance of a landscape more varied and expansive than many perceive.
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