Jake Leckie creates acoustic organic soulful folk-jazz for the people! With firm roots in jazz, his bass playing is informed by classical, gospel, latin, folk, & hip- hop. His credits include touring with Sixto “Sugarman” Rodriguez, recording and touring with The Harlem Gospel Travelers, traveling to the Havana Jazz Festival to perform with Spanish saxophonist Gianni Gagliardi, recording two albums with Canadian pianist/composer Cat Toren for her Human Kind project, working as a session player with Grammy® Award-winning multi-platinum producer Bekon (on recordings with Megan Moroney, Jessie Murph, CIL, and Saint Motel, and on the music for the AppleTV+ series Lady in the Lake starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram), playing SFJazz and Angel City Jazz Festival and recording Water Stem with saxophonist Hitomi Oba, and playing at The Apollo Theater and Newport Jazz Festival with piano prodigy Matthew Whitaker. He has performed with a diverse array of artists including pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, avant-garde saxophonist Matana Roberts, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Danny Jonokuchi Big Band, pianist Vardan Ovsepian, and Grammy® Award-winning Latin Big Band Pacific Mambo Orchestra. Additionally, he has performed on the stages of Jamboree Club (Barcelona), LACMA, Sam First, Libretto (Paso Robles), Mintons, Smalls and Blue Note (NYC), Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (San Francisco), Pilgrimage Festival (Nashville), and The Montreal Jazz Festival. He produced several albums, including Chris McCarthy’s Ropeadope release Still Time To Quit, and mixed five albums by Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara). His work as a composer can be heard on PBS, BBC, HBO, CNN, and NBC. 

Born in Boston, Leckie developed an interest in improvised music at a young age studying with John Lockwood. He recorded with avant-noir pianist Ran Blake, reggae guitarist Lyn Taitt, and long time friends Eli “Paperboy” Reed and Eli Keszler (who he still collaborates with, most recently on Keszler's Self Titled album, and on the score to the film Bad Shabbos). He earned a degree in Anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore while studying bass with Michael Formanek, and earned a Masters in Audio Science from the Recording Arts department of the Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Gary Thomas and Jeff Weisner, and had opportunities to perform with George Garzone and Yo-Yo Ma. 

Leckie recorded his debut album The Abode in New York with trumpeter Kenny Warren, pianist Sebastien Ammann, drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, and guest artist Caroline Davis, which was released on Outside In Music in 2019 to critical acclaim. After relocating to LA, produced his second album, The Guide an analog acoustic folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope Records in April 2022, with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow. His third album of original music, Planter of Seeds, featuring The Guide Trio with pianist Cathlene Pineda, saxophonist Randal Fisher, and trombonist Darius Christian, was released in June of 2024. Jake plays a 1890s Bohemian Flatback double-bass, a fender precision electric bass, and a custom stick bass for salsa and latin-jazz, but not all at the same time. He is active as an educator, and lives in Los Feliz with his wife and kids.

Contact:
[email protected]