Alexis Cole
Voice
50 age
January 28, 1976 Birthday
New York, New York, U.S. Birthplace
www.alexiscole.com Website
Social
Shows
About
Alexis Cole is a jazz vocalist, pianist, educator, and entrepreneur based in New York. Known for her warm, resonant contralto, she has been compared to Sarah Vaughan and Anita O'Day. She has released thirteen albums across labels including Motema, Chesky Records, Venus Records, and Zoho Records, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as with the Boston Pops and New York Philharmonic. From 2009 to 2015, she served as lead vocalist of the West Point Band's Jazz Knights, holding the rank of Staff Sergeant. After her service, she became Jazz Voice Professor at SUNY Purchase, where her students included Grammy Award winner Samara Joy. In 2020, she founded JazzVoice.com, an online platform connecting aspiring singers with accomplished jazz educators. She co-founded the Virginia Beach Vocal Jazz Summit in 2021 and in 2023 became director of MusicAuditions.com, a job platform for musicians.
Trivia
Cole studied Indian classical singing at the Jazz India Vocal Institute in Mumbai shortly after college. From 2002 to 2005, she spent approximately five months each year traveling through Europe, supporting herself through busking and hitchhiking. She lived in Tokyo for two and a half years, performing nightly at the Tableaux Jazz Lounge in Daikanyama. Her students include Grammy winner Samara Joy and Ella Fitzgerald Competition winner Lucy Wijnands. She also spent a semester teaching jazz voice in Quito, Ecuador, through a Berklee College of Music program.
Early Life
Alexis Cole was born on January 28, 1976, in Queens, New York, and raised in South Florida. Her father, Mark Finkin, was a pianist, singer, and composer who gave her early piano instruction, and her grandmother Estelle Cole was a singer and pianist specializing in the American Songbook. Cole attended the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where she studied musical theater, received private voice instruction from Christine Arroyo, and began singing with the school's jazz band under educator JB Dyas. She had her first professional gig at a hotel in South Beach while still in high school. After graduating in 1994 with a Young Arts Scholarship, she studied at the University of Miami before transferring to William Paterson University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in 1998. She completed a Master of Music from Queens College in 2006.
Alexis Cole Solos
2021
Voice solo - Joy Spring - 2021
4/4 swing in C major at 196 BPM
Voice solo - All Blues - 2021
6/8 swing in C major at 141 BPM