Alexis Lombre

Alexis Lombre discovered early on that the true essence of music isn’t about just what you hear, but about how you feel.

The Chicago-born pianist, vocalist, and composer’s mission is to keep the “soul” in music alive —and her 2017 debut album, Southside Sounds, does just that. The album, released in 2017, is a soulful, straight-ahead reflection of Lombre’s upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, a homage to the area’s lively artistic and cultural heritage. Lombre’s 2021 single, “Come Find Me,” is a song created without any borders, described by Lombre as “lyrically, a gospel song; harmonically, a jazz song; and rhythmically, a hip-hop/R&B song.” As JazzTimes put it, Lombre “realized early on that by refusing to be constrained by convention — whether so called ‘jazz’ or otherwise — she’d be honoring, rather than defiling, the rich heritage she’d come to embrace.”

Named as an inaugural member of the Next Jazz Legacy class, a national apprenticeship program by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Lombre has studied with jazz luminaries including Willie Pickens, Benny Green, Geri Allen, and Robert Hurst. She has played with renowned musicians including the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ Great Black Music Ensemble, Dee Alexander, James Carter, Ernest Dawkins, Donald Harrison, Nona Hendrix, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Makaya McCraven, Marcus Miller, J Moss, Cece Peniston, Wadada Leo Smith, Bobby Watson, and Buster Williams.

Lombre showcases new material from her forthcoming album in her Harris Theater debut, bringing her singular blend of avant-garde, hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and jazz to the provocative and engaging Mix at Six series.