Valérie Lacombe is a Montreal-based jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer whose work centers on original music for chordless quartet. Her debut album, State of Garden and Shadow, will be released on April
17th 2026 and features Camille Thurman on tenor saxophone, Caoilainn Power on alto saxophone,
and Ira Coleman on bass.
In 2026, she was selected for a residency at the Tribeca Jazz Institute in New York City, where she
studied with Kenny Washington, Chris Byars, Eric Alexander, Harry Allen, Grant Stewart, Greg
Ruggiero, and other leading figures of the New York jazz scene.
Valerie holds a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from McGill University (2024), where she studied
with Darrell Green and Kevin Dean.
She is also a member of The Ostara Project, a Canadian collective featuring a rotating cast of
award-winning women musicians, with whom she has toured extensively across Canada, including the
Yukon Territory.
“State of Garden and Shadow”, a quote taken from the Clarice Lispector novel “Água Viva”. The work focuses on music for a jazz quartet of two horns, bass and drums. This formatoffers a lot of creative freedom for spontaneous interaction between the members of the ensemble dueto the absence of a chordal instrument such as a piano or guitar. Throughout the music’s history, there have been various different approaches to the chord-less quartet, from Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, to Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry and more. The particular approach associated most with Elvin Jones, which Lacombe has been heavily inspired by during the compositional process, consists of a strong swing feeling and melodic freedom in the drums, along with harmonically dense and assertive saxophone playing.
Personnel:
Check out: “Farnsworth”
Website: valerielacombe.com
