Boston—In a city where Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club has long tested and revealed the next generation of jazz voices, drummer Guilhem Fourty is stepping into that legacy and carrying it onto national stages. The Toulouse, France native, now based in Boston, has built a profile that combines headline billing, top-tier festival work, and a string of awards that mark him as a leading artist of his cohort.
In a city where Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club has long tested and revealed the next generation of jazz voices, drummer Guilhem Fourty is stepping into that legacy and carrying it onto national stages. The Toulouse, France native, now based in Boston, has built a profile that combines headline billing, top-tier festival work, and a string of awards that mark him as a leading artist of his cohort.
The Wally’s test matters. Founded in 1947, the club is one of the country’s oldest jazz rooms and a cornerstone of Boston’s musical life, known both for its storied bandstand and for its role as an incubator through education and mentorship. In 2025 and 2026, Fourty is in a leading role at Wally’s as Lead Drummer for multiple engagements. He anchors a residency with the Ciara Moser Trio in December 2025, performing three concerts that month, and returns in May 2026 with the Ethan Klotz Quartet.
The artists around him at Wally’s underscore the level. Ciara Moser, an Austrian-born, U.S.-based bassist and bandleader, tours internationally with her groups and appears at respected festivals and venues from the Panama Jazz Festival and Chile Jazz for Peace to European cultural centers and Boston stages. Fourty’s earlier Wally’s appearance in September 2024, on a bill with an acclaimed saxophonist-composer-educator, marked his first turn on that historic bandstand and foreshadowed the deeper commitments to come.
If Wally’s is a crucible, Fourty’s work with Danilo Pérez shows what happens after the heat. In April 2024, he was lead drummer of Pérez’s One World Jazz Orchestra in a run that included the Blue Llama, Cliff Bell’s, and a performance at the opening of the Detroit Jazz Festival— leading roles in such events underscore the fact that he is in-demand in the world of jazz. Pérez is a multiple Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and founder of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute; his ensembles demand rhythmic fluency across cultures and the ability to move between written complexity and open improvisation. The Detroit Jazz Festival is recognized as the world’s largest free jazz festival and a magnet for major artists, with more than 60 performances and late-night jam sessions presented each year alongside robust education programs. For a young drummer, holding down this kind of book on that scale speaks to trust from top bandleaders and to readiness for the biggest stages.
Those credentials are matched by a run of awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Fourty received an award from the French foundation Marcel Bleustein Blanchet pour la Vocation in 2022, a recognition of artistic promise and dedication. At Berklee College of Music, he won the Downbeat Student Music Award in 2022 and 2023 as as the drummer of the Jazz Ensemble Choir led by Ned Rosenblatt, a back-to-back distinction that signals consistent excellence in a competitive environment. He also earned the Jury Prize for drums at the Toulouse Conservatory. Taken together, these honors frame Fourty as a musician validated by institutions known for high standards.
As a bandleader, Fourty has moved from Boston to national and international prominence. With the Guilhem Fourty Quartet, he headlined a Summer in the City concert at Symphony Park in 2022, part of a long-running civic series that brings live music to marquee public venues, including the Boston Harbor Hotel. He returned as a headliner with his trio at UnCommon Stage in October 2024. By spring 2025, his quartet was topping the bill at Williamsburg Music Center in New York, a historic Brooklyn venue founded in 1981 by composer and bandleader Gerry Eastman. Eastman’s connections span artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Etta Jones, and the Isley Brothers; the club has presented hundreds of bands across decades and stands as a benchmark room for serious improvisers. That same year, Fourty’s quartet headlined Boston’s Golf Concert Series, bringing jazz into public spaces for broad community audiences.
The road is widening. Fourty’s quartet is set for a weekly concert series at Dear Mama NYC and upcoming stops at Fiction BK in Brooklyn, The Sound Room in Oakland, and the Peacock Lounge in San Francisco—rooms known for attentive crowds and for connecting national acts such as Fourty's quartet to regional scenes, which will further build his ever-expanding fan base. In October 2025, the quartet is slated to headline DADA in Ridgewood, one of New York’s more innovative jazz venues, recognized for pairing a forward-leaning roster with music education programs. Earlier in his arc, Fourty also led a headlining tour of Brazil in 2022, a significant early international milestone under his own name.
Fourty’s portfolio also shows a commitment to socially focused work. In 2024, he served in a leading role as Lead Drummer on “Dreaming Freedom," a single produced by the nonprofit xPropelr, which connects artists across borders to raise awareness for social change. The project was in consideration for a Grammy in the category named for Harry Belafonte and dedicated to social change, aligning Fourty’s craft with civic purpose.
The collaborations that round out his year are not routine sideman dates; they are leadership roles inside other leaders’ bands. Since 2024, Fourty has been the Lead Drummer for Skye Darling, a dynamic singer-songwriter whose album “Only Noise" is due out later this Fall. With Skye Darling, Fourty is set to perform at The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth, N.H., and the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge.
Fourty’s ongoing work with Ethan Klotz further underscores his standing. From 2025 through 2028 he will serve as Lead Drummer of the Ethan Klotz Quartet. The appointment places him on a steady rotation of major Boston stages: Wally’s, Regattabar, the Beehive, and the Bebop. For a drummer based in Boston, that schedule is both a platform and a proving ground, delivering nightly pressure and visibility in equal measure.
Elsewhere on the collaborative front, Fourty recorded as Lead Drummer on a single by saxophonist Jonathan Suazo submitted to the Tiny Desk competition. Suazo leads RICANO, a project that blends Puerto Rican and Dominican traditions with modern jazz language and was named among the Recording Academy’s top emerging jazz artists in 2023. The pairing put Fourty inside music that demands precision, pulse, and cultural fluency.
Viewed together, these milestones form a coherent picture. Wally’s gives Fourty a historic stage and a community anchor; Pérez’s One World Jazz Orchestra and the Detroit Jazz Festival demonstrate his command at the highest level of ensemble performance; awards from France to Boston confirm the quality behind the résumé; and his leadership roles—both in his own quartet and inside others’ bands—show that fellow artists trust him to set direction from the drum throne.
For audiences, the takeaway is simple: Guilhem Fourty is not only a drummer who keeps impeccable time. He is a leader shaping sound and structure, moving with ease from neighborhood clubs to the largest free jazz festival in the world, and from civic concerts to international tours. In a crowded field, that breadth—and the depth behind it—marks him as a major artist on the rise.
The Wally’s test matters. Founded in 1947, the club is one of the country’s oldest jazz rooms and a cornerstone of Boston’s musical life, known both for its storied bandstand and for its role as an incubator through education and mentorship. In 2025 and 2026, Fourty is in a leading role at Wally’s as Lead Drummer for multiple engagements. He anchors a residency with the Ciara Moser Trio in December 2025, performing three concerts that month, and returns in May 2026 with the Ethan Klotz Quartet.
The artists around him at Wally’s underscore the level. Ciara Moser, an Austrian-born, U.S.-based bassist and bandleader, tours internationally with her groups and appears at respected festivals and venues from the Panama Jazz Festival and Chile Jazz for Peace to European cultural centers and Boston stages. Fourty’s earlier Wally’s appearance in September 2024, on a bill with an acclaimed saxophonist-composer-educator, marked his first turn on that historic bandstand and foreshadowed the deeper commitments to come.
If Wally’s is a crucible, Fourty’s work with Danilo Pérez shows what happens after the heat. In April 2024, he was lead drummer of Pérez’s One World Jazz Orchestra in a run that included the Blue Llama, Cliff Bell’s, and a performance at the opening of the Detroit Jazz Festival— leading roles in such events underscore the fact that he is in-demand in the world of jazz. Pérez is a multiple Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and founder of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute; his ensembles demand rhythmic fluency across cultures and the ability to move between written complexity and open improvisation. The Detroit Jazz Festival is recognized as the world’s largest free jazz festival and a magnet for major artists, with more than 60 performances and late-night jam sessions presented each year alongside robust education programs. For a young drummer, holding down this kind of book on that scale speaks to trust from top bandleaders and to readiness for the biggest stages.
Those credentials are matched by a run of awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Fourty received an award from the French foundation Marcel Bleustein Blanchet pour la Vocation in 2022, a recognition of artistic promise and dedication. At Berklee College of Music, he won the Downbeat Student Music Award in 2022 and 2023 as as the drummer of the Jazz Ensemble Choir led by Ned Rosenblatt, a back-to-back distinction that signals consistent excellence in a competitive environment. He also earned the Jury Prize for drums at the Toulouse Conservatory. Taken together, these honors frame Fourty as a musician validated by institutions known for high standards.
As a bandleader, Fourty has moved from Boston to national and international prominence. With the Guilhem Fourty Quartet, he headlined a Summer in the City concert at Symphony Park in 2022, part of a long-running civic series that brings live music to marquee public venues, including the Boston Harbor Hotel. He returned as a headliner with his trio at UnCommon Stage in October 2024. By spring 2025, his quartet was topping the bill at Williamsburg Music Center in New York, a historic Brooklyn venue founded in 1981 by composer and bandleader Gerry Eastman. Eastman’s connections span artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Etta Jones, and the Isley Brothers; the club has presented hundreds of bands across decades and stands as a benchmark room for serious improvisers. That same year, Fourty’s quartet headlined Boston’s Golf Concert Series, bringing jazz into public spaces for broad community audiences.
The road is widening. Fourty’s quartet is set for a weekly concert series at Dear Mama NYC and upcoming stops at Fiction BK in Brooklyn, The Sound Room in Oakland, and the Peacock Lounge in San Francisco—rooms known for attentive crowds and for connecting national acts such as Fourty's quartet to regional scenes, which will further build his ever-expanding fan base. In October 2025, the quartet is slated to headline DADA in Ridgewood, one of New York’s more innovative jazz venues, recognized for pairing a forward-leaning roster with music education programs. Earlier in his arc, Fourty also led a headlining tour of Brazil in 2022, a significant early international milestone under his own name.
Fourty’s portfolio also shows a commitment to socially focused work. In 2024, he served in a leading role as Lead Drummer on “Dreaming Freedom," a single produced by the nonprofit xPropelr, which connects artists across borders to raise awareness for social change. The project was in consideration for a Grammy in the category named for Harry Belafonte and dedicated to social change, aligning Fourty’s craft with civic purpose.
The collaborations that round out his year are not routine sideman dates; they are leadership roles inside other leaders’ bands. Since 2024, Fourty has been the Lead Drummer for Skye Darling, a dynamic singer-songwriter whose album “Only Noise" is due out later this Fall. With Skye Darling, Fourty is set to perform at The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth, N.H., and the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge.
Fourty’s ongoing work with Ethan Klotz further underscores his standing. From 2025 through 2028 he will serve as Lead Drummer of the Ethan Klotz Quartet. The appointment places him on a steady rotation of major Boston stages: Wally’s, Regattabar, the Beehive, and the Bebop. For a drummer based in Boston, that schedule is both a platform and a proving ground, delivering nightly pressure and visibility in equal measure.
Elsewhere on the collaborative front, Fourty recorded as Lead Drummer on a single by saxophonist Jonathan Suazo submitted to the Tiny Desk competition. Suazo leads RICANO, a project that blends Puerto Rican and Dominican traditions with modern jazz language and was named among the Recording Academy’s top emerging jazz artists in 2023. The pairing put Fourty inside music that demands precision, pulse, and cultural fluency.
Viewed together, these milestones form a coherent picture. Wally’s gives Fourty a historic stage and a community anchor; Pérez’s One World Jazz Orchestra and the Detroit Jazz Festival demonstrate his command at the highest level of ensemble performance; awards from France to Boston confirm the quality behind the résumé; and his leadership roles—both in his own quartet and inside others’ bands—show that fellow artists trust him to set direction from the drum throne.
For audiences, the takeaway is simple: Guilhem Fourty is not only a drummer who keeps impeccable time. He is a leader shaping sound and structure, moving with ease from neighborhood clubs to the largest free jazz festival in the world, and from civic concerts to international tours. In a crowded field, that breadth—and the depth behind it—marks him as a major artist on the rise.
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