Despite growing up in a musical family and grafting away for years performing and teaching across the world, it was a stint serving in the army that finally helped Alexis Cole establish herself as a silky-voiced singer on the US jazz circuit.
Born in Queens, New York, both her grandmother and father were jazz singers and pianists who taught her jazz standards and took her to clubs at an early age. When the family moved to Florida, Cole studied at a performing arts school and began her career in the early 1990s singing in hotel bars on South Beach.
After graduating with a degree in music from William Patterson University, she self-released the album 'Very Early' in 1999 before embarking on a number of globetrotting experiences, which included learning indigenous classical singing in India, teaching in Ecuador and landing other jobs performing in Tokyo and New York.
She also released the albums 'Nearer the Sun' and 'Zingaro' but, tiring of the all the travelling in 2009 she found an unusual way of settling down by auditioning to join the West Point Army ensemble the Jazz Knights. After undergoing basic training she spent nearly seven years playing with the big band, developing her mastery of swing standards and scat improvisation, continuing to build her reputation with the albums 'Turning Point' and 'You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To'.
She went on to collaborate with veteran jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli on 'A Beautiful Friendship' in 2015 and in 2016 released her twelfth album 'A Dazzling Blue', paying tribute to the songs of Paul Simon.
