Alexis Cole is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

singer.

Career

Cole was born in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York. Her father and grandmother were both jazz singers and pianists. She grew up in South Florida, where she studied Musical Theater at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. While in her senior year there, she began her professional career performing at a hotel in

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard. This area was the fi ...

. This got her interested in singing Jazz. She attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, ...

but in her Junior year transferred to

William Paterson University William Paterson University, officially William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), is a public university in Wayne, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Founded in 1855 and was named after American ju ...

where she received her Bachelors of Music in 1998 Directly after college, she was an

AmeriCorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work pro ...

volunteer for one year, and then went to study music in Mumbai, India with the Jazz India Vocal Institute. From 2000 to 2005 she traveled extensively in Europe, busking and hitchhiking. He
blog
well documents this interesting time. Her debut album, ''Very Early'' (1999), was recorded with Harry Pickens and independently released, and her second album, ''Nearer the Sun'' (2004) was recorded with

Ben Stivers Ben Stivers is an American musician. Stivers records, tours, and collaborates with artists across multiple genres, including jazz, blues, rock, pop, Latin pop, and jazz fusion. In June 2019 Ben joined Lyle Lovett and His Large Band on their US t ...

. In 2006, she received a Masters of Music from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

. She taught for one semester at a program in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, Pichincha ...

, Ecuador, run by the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cou ...

. Cole spent most of the next two years singing and playing piano at a lounge in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009 she enlisted in the U.S. Army to become the lead singer for the West Point Band's Jazz Knights Big Band until 2015. In 2016, she released a tribute to Paul Simon entitled ''Dazzling Blue'', which debuted at No. 24 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' jazz chart. After leaving the Army she became the Jazz Voice Professor at the

State University of New York at Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was ...

. Some of her notable students ar
Samara Joy
McLendon, who won the Sarah Vaughan Competition in 2019, an
Lucy Wijnands
who was a

Downbeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

Award Winner in 2020 and winner of the 2020 Ella Fitzgerald Competition. In 2021 she took on a second position as Jazz Voice Professor at her alma mater

. In May 2020, amidst social distancing due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, she founded an online educational websit
www.jazzvoice.com
to connect vocalists and students for virtual learning opportunities. Some of the singers teaching on the site include Karrin Allyson,

Tierney Sutton Tierney Sutton (born June 28, 1963) is an American jazz singer. Career Sutton was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and attended ...

, Cyrille Aimée,

Kate McGarry Katherine Genevieve McGarry, known professionally as Kate McGarry, is a jazz vocalist. Career McGarry grew up in an Irish-American family with nine siblings in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduat ...

Jane Monheit Jane Monheit (born November 3, 1977"Jane Monheit." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 33. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2001. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-05-07.) is an American jazz and pop singer. Early life Monheit was bo ...

, John Proulx, Jay Clayton, Dena DeRose and Catherine Russell. In April of 2021 along with th
Z Theater
she co produced the first annua
Virginia Beach Vocal Jazz Summit
In November 2021 she released ''Sky Blossom: Songs From My Tour of Duty'', a Big Band album composed of the arrangements b
Scott Arcangel
that were written for her during her time in the West Point Band.

Discography

* ''Very Early'' (CD Baby, 1999) with Harry Pickens * ''Nearer the Sun'' (Canopy Jazz, 2004) * ''Zingaro'' (Canopy Jazz, 2007) * ''Someday My Prince Will Come'' (

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

, 2009) * ''The Greatest Gift: Songs of the Season'' (Motema 2009) * ''You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to'' (Venus, 2010) * ''I Carry Your Heart'' (Motema, 2012) * ''Close Your Eyes'' (Venus, 2014) * ''A Kiss in the Dark'' (Chesky, 2014) * ''A Beautiful Friendship'' with Bucky Pizzarelli (Venus, 2015) * ''Dazzling Blue: The Music of Paul Simon'' (Chesky, 2016) * ''Sky Blossom: Songs From My Tour of Duty'' (Zoho, 2021) * ''The Greatest Gift: Songs of the Season'' (MNRK, 2021) – re-release with bonus material

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Alexis Living people 1976 births American women jazz singers American jazz singers Chesky Records artists Venus Records artists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Motéma Music artists