Still in her twenties, the pianist, vocalist, composer, and producer Alexis Lombre established herself as a force out of Chicago’s legendary musical universe while barely out of her teens. Living, learning and working in the vibrant musical cultures of Chicago, Detroit, New York, and now Los Angeles, Alexis’ cosmopolitan musical vision is formed in dialogue with textures of contemporary urban Black experience in these cities. Dissolving “boundaries” between Black music’s so-called “genres”—including R&B, avant-garde,  gospel, soul, hip-hop and jazz—is part of the living tradition she carries. As she puts it, “Separation is an illusion. Especially within the genres of Black music.” 

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Alexis grew up on Chicago’s South Side and became involved during childhood in the city’s musical communities, discovering early that “the true essence of music is not just about what you hear but how music makes you feel.” Alexis began playing piano at age nine, and soon became a student and mentee of the great Chicago pianist Willie Pickens. Following her “musical mothers”​​—the pianists Terry Jean Pollard, Alice Coltrane, and Alma Smith, who found community in the Motor City—Alexis immersed herself in Detroit’s jazz and gospel scene after moving to Ann Arbor for college. She also toured South Africa with Ernest Dawkins’ Englewood-Soweto Exchange and France with Bacongo Square Boulevard, a trio of French, Congolese, and American musicians.

 

In 2017, Alexis released her acclaimed first album, South Side Sounds, a series of piano homages to the jazz musicians of the South Side—a “straight ahead” jazz album, in her words. She was inducted as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 2023. Her hotly-anticipated second album, due out in 2025, explores her irrepressible range—as she puts it, “An amalgamation of everything I do and everything I am…within the whole realm of Black music.”