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Valérie Lacombe (she/her) is a jazz drummer based in Montreal. Her warm sound, swing feel and musicality are quickly earning her a reputation as one of the most important emerging voices in straight-ahead jazz on the Montreal scene. With her main project, the Valérie Lacombe Sextet, she is on a mission to uplift and unify people through bold, joyful, swinging music.
In addition to leading her own band, Valérie is part of the Laura Anglade Quintet, with whom she recorded an album, released in 2019 on Justin Time Records. She has toured throughout Canada with Quinn Bachand’s Brishen and the Sam Kirmayer Quartet. Valerie has performed at the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal International Jazz Festivals, Festi Jazz Mont-Tremblant, Festival de Musique Émergente (FME), Festif! de Baie-Saint-Paul and Festival International Nuits d'Afrique de Montreal, as well as some of Canada’s most reputable jazz venues such as Upstairs (Montreal), Dièse Onze (Montreal), Hermann’s (Victoria), Frankie’s (Vancouver) and Yardbird Suite (Edmonton).
Along with guitarist Sam Kirmayer and pianist/drummer Andre White, she co-founded the Saint-Henri Jazz Society, a new non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of jazz in Saint-Henri. Its mission is to promote jazz and cultivate audiences for the genre through concerts and inclusive cultural activities, and to provide opportunities for the promotion and development of Montreal’s jazz artists, present and future.
In July 2016, upon the recommendation of Ingrid Jensen, Valérie received a full scholarship to participate in NJPAC’s All Female Jazz Camp directed by Geri Allen, where she had the opportunity to study with drummer Jeff 'Tain' Watts. In 2018, she graduated from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, where she studied drums with Andre White, Dave Laing and Jim Doxas.
Thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Valerie is currently being mentored by master drummer Joe Farnsworth.