Studio Session: Alexis Cole

Doug Gertner: Okay, our Kabaret studio is activated this morning. Let me tell you who’s sitting at the piano right now. Vocalist Alexis Cole is an accomplished jazz performer based in New York City. With more than a dozen recordings of her own, Cole collaborated with many jazz greats, played and taught in locales worldwide, including an affiliate of the Berkeley College of Music in Ecuador, and at SUNY Purchase, William Patterson University in New Jersey and Western Connecticut State. A singer, educator, world traveler, and a veteran of the US Army, Alexis Cole plays a MAS Present Show sponsored by KGNU tomorrow, Thursday, April 17th at the Savoy in Denver, along with Dana Landry on piano and Erik Applegate on base. And we’ll have tickets for that one at the end of today’s session. But right now, I’d like to welcome Alexis Cole to KGNU’S Kabaret Studio and ask if you would please kick us off with a tune before we get to chat.

[Alexis Cole plays Yesterdays by Jerome Kern]

Doug Gertner: Oh my. That rich and wonderful voice belongs to Alexis Cole playing live at KGNU this morning. Warming us up for her MAS Present Show tomorrow at the Savoy in Denver. Ah, Alexis Cole. Welcome to KGNU. 

Alexis Cole: Thank you so great to be here with you, Doug. 

Doug Gertner: It’s lovely to have you. What did we just hear?

Alexis Cole: That was Yesterdays from Jerome Kern.

Doug Gertner: Ah, the great Jerome Kern. I have a little known fact for you, but I’ll mention it after the session. I mentioned in your introduction that you’re exceptionally well traveled. I’m just scanning your bio, I see Vancouver, Tokyo, Taipei, five months busking in Europe, a year aboard the Carnival cruise ship Victory. I think I even mentioned Berkeley in Ecuador. And I’m just curious how all of these far-flung ports that you’ve visited and spent various amounts of time in, how that’s influenced your music and kinda how that might show up at the Savoy in Denver tomorrow. 

Alexis Cole: Sure. I think you are what you eat, and traveling affords a person the opportunity to meet different people, experience different cultures. And I’m a real cultural omnivore. I just love to really experience things wherever I go and meet the people where I go. And that’s such a great thing about traveling with the music too, is you’re not just there as a tourist, but you’re participating in the culture that you’re in. In Ecuador, I was there for six months, in Japan I lived there for a year and a half, over two and a half years in Tokyo. I was playing in a lounge and singing. And actually my very first travels abroad were to India where I studied Indian classical singing. And those experiences stay with you and inform your sense of what it is to be a global citizen and a human. And musicians are outside of place and time. 

Doug Gertner: It’s timeless, not quite a limbo but you stand outside of the society and you’re both a sponge and a contributor, I would guess. And I’m wondering, I noted that a couple years ago, I guess 2022, you spent a month in Taiwan collaborating with the Taipei jazz orchestra that seemed to yield an album called Jazz Republic: Taiwan, The United States and the Freedom of Swing. And I’d really love to hear more about the time down in Taiwan. 

Alexis Cole: Yes. It was incredible. My partner Paul, who’s here with me in the studio, was there with me, we had a great time. They invited me for a concert that was sponsored by the government. So I performed a concert with the big band, which is led by Dr. Jean Akin, who’s an American jazz educator who brings jazz to all over the Middle East and Asia. He started that in the 70’s, so he’s been really working at it hard, and it’s great to see the fruits of his labor with these great big bands all around the Middle East and Asia really succeeding and doing well. And their director Jimmy Lee, he went to University of North Texas. He’s a killing saxophone player and he directs the band, and it was just really inspiring. A lot of the people in that band are young. They’re mostly under 30, and a lot of them are women. Women and men seem to play more equal roles there in the music. They don’t have the baggage of history behind them with the jazz, so a lot of these young women were the section leaders of horn sections and stuff, and it was just a great experience. And as far as Taiwan goes. What a country so much like America in that it’s such a cultural melting pot. Obviously you have the Chinese influence, and the Japanese influence, they had a really important time there. But also lots of different European countries fought for supremacy in Taiwan over the years. And there’s a native population that really until the middle of the 1800s didn’t become part of the greater community. So it’s a lot like the United States in that melting pot sensibility, and we really felt so at home there. 

Doug Gertner: And it sounds the universal language of swing was your calling card and your ability to communicate across cultures. I’m gonna admit a little bit of cultural curiosity about what it occurs to me to inquire about next. ‘Cause I saw that you enlisted in the US Army and served from 2009 to 2015 as the vocalist with the Jazz Knights, I guess the West Point big band. And I wonder if you could fill us in on that one. It just makes me curious what that experience was like and the whole decision. 

Alexis Cole: Sure. As I mentioned, I am a cultural omnivore. The way that came about was that my voice teacher from college, Nancy Murano, suggested that I audition. ‘Cause these spots, there’s only 12 big bands across all the branches of the military. And people keep those jobs for 20 years plus. I was completely ignorant of this world until I knew about it. But when one comes open, it’s a big deal. So she reached out to me and I said, “Oh, come on. That’s weird.” And she said, “You’re one of only three people I could think of that’s ever studied with me that I think could do it.” And you have to, of course, be under a certain age and able to jog and stuff like that. And get up early. That’s part of it too.

Doug Gertner: Did you go through basic training?

Alexis Cole: Yeah! Luckily first they make you audition and they tell you if you got the job or not ’cause that would be a shame to go through all that for nothing. But I really said, “You know what? Let me see if I get the job. Then I’ll decide how I feel about it.” But just like they say, anything worth having is worth working for. The converse is also true. And I worked so hard for that audition that anything worth working for is consequently worth having. So of course, when they hired me, I said “Yes.” I didn’t think twice about it. And next thing, I’m out in basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, shooting rifles and waking up at 4:00 AM doing PT and let me just tell you this. I mean it was a six and a half year experience and it changed my life. Not in every way for the better. I was like much more of a kind of loving, trusting, flower child before I went to the army. And boy, you lose your innocence quickly there.

Doug Gertner: It sounds like it was quite an experience over six years. And then how does it work? Do you retire? Do you get the army pension? What’s the sort of the subsequent or lasting impact of your years with the Jazz Knights, the big band at West Point? 

Alexis Cole: Sure. I’ll just say I was actually, I only enlisted for three years, and the fact that I stayed for six and a half is a testament to how great the job was. It was really wonderful. That your day job is working with a big band, going and rehearsing every day. I had some admin jobs that I did with some really brilliant people. Everybody in that band was just brilliant. It was great. I was living around West Point in the Hudson Valley in Peekskill, New York, which is a beautiful part of the world and making music with those guys. So yeah, I stayed longer than I meant to stay ’cause I like to be pretty free. But it was a great experience.You do a great job, America, taking care of your veterans. I know they got a lot of bad press, but I’ve had VA healthcare now since I left the Army in 2015. And I have amazing doctors. I’ve had surgeries and everything’s been covered by the military. 

Doug Gertner: A working musician with healthcare. That alone commends the job. But as you say a very elite group of you. I’m in Kabaret, our studio live with Alexis Cole, who performs tomorrow night at MAS Presents sponsored by KGNU at the Savoy in Denver. And we’re talking about her world travels and her time in the US Army singing in the big band, but I’d love to hear some more tunes live while we have Alexis Cole. What are we gonna hear next? 

Alexis Cole: Another legacy of my time in the big band is that our music director, Scott Archangel, wrote a sort of a whole book of arrangements for me, just for my voice and my sensibilities. And when I left the Army, I made an album of that material. And you probably have it in your library, it’s Sky Blossom: Songs from My Tour of Duty. So I’m gonna play two of those tunes now. One, I’m gonna piggyback on your earlier spring theme and play Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring with lyrics by the great Jezra Kaye, New York lyricist and poet. And then I’m going to play Estate the beautiful Bruno Martino tune. But the second one, Scott arranged both of them for the big band album, but I’m gonna play his arrangement of Estate and we’ll just do a swing tune version of Joy Spring. 

[Alexis Cole plays Joy Spring and Estate]

Doug Gertner: That’s Alexis Cole live in KGNU’s Kabaret studio with a couple of tunes from Sky Blossom: Songs from My Tour of Duty that resulted from, as we were just discussing, her time in the US military, in the Army, singing along with the big band outta West Point. And it began that two song set with Joy Spring, the signature tune, as I understand it, of trumpeter Clifford Brown. And then the next one Estate, spelled like estate. Talk about that one as well. 

Alexis Cole: Oh sure. It means “in summer.” Estate by Bruno Martino arranged by Scott Archangel. And you guys will just love that big band arrangement, so please check that out on Spotify or wherever you stream. 

Doug Gertner: Spring and summer.

Alexis Cole: Yes, all the seasons not intentionally planned.

Doug Gertner: Very nice. Let’s talk about your show tomorrow, Thursday, April 17th. It’s MAS presents the Alexis Cole Trio sponsored by KGNU at the Savoy in Five Points Curtis Park, Denver. I see you’re gonna be joined by Dana Landry on piano and Erik Applegate on bass. And both of those are Colorado based musicians. Dana teaches and helms the renowned jazz studies program at UNC in Greeley. And Erik is a very versatile basis, plays with Dana often. How did you come to be playing with a couple of Colorado’s finest musicians? And what do you got in store for us tomorrow? 

Alexis Cole: Sure. I just wanted to mention that in the studio today too is David Spira from MAS Presents and he’s the one responsible for bringing me out here. And I met him years ago through Dazzle. And that’s where I also met Dana, is that I had a gig booked at Old Dazzle where I wrote my name on the wall there. I still have that picture in my album. And, I played with Dana and we really had such a great connection and I think Ken Walker was on base and yeah. So I was excited for another opportunity to come out to Colorado and get a chance to commune with a favorite pianist of mine. As you and your listeners can hear, I play piano myself, and I do lots of gigs with my trio in New York City where I play piano, and we have bass and drums. But the opportunity to come here meant that I could collaborate with Dana. And so that was really exciting. And I asked Dana who she’s playing with the most and as you mentioned her and Erik are frequent collaborators, and that’s always nice to have musicians that are on the same page. So I’m really excited. Getting up from the piano gives me a chance to explore some new repertoire. And this season I’ve added a couple of tunes to my library, including some Bob Dorough tunes. Nothing Like You Has Ever Been Seen Before with lyrics by Fran Lanman. So I’m really excited to premiere that. And also his tune, Devil May Care, which is one of my favorites. Yeah, a couple of new Bob Dorough tunes. I have my kind of set repertoire at the piano. I add a song now and then. But having the freedom to stand up and sing is a lot more fluid and dynamic for me.

Doug Gertner: An evening of jazz. Shout out to David Spiro, who’s in the house, the maestro of MAS Presents since that program was relaunched and has a home, just a great room. If you’ve not been to the Savoy in Denver, it is made for jazz music. And so thanks to David and this collaboration since the relaunch with KGNU and we’ll be offering up some tickets. So let me line that out for folks before we let Alexis play us out. Again, this is the Alexis Cole Trio, we’ll call it, sponsored by KGNU at the Savoy tomorrow night. As they like to say, doors and cocktails at 7:30, come early. It’s a great space show at eight o’clock. And tickets and information  at maspresents.org. That’s MASpresents.org. You can also learn more at kgnu.org at our presents page and what we have for you today are a pair of guest list tickets. I’ll give it to the third caller once the actual recorded music starts, so hang in there folks. I don’t want to take you away from the last song that Alexis is gonna treat us to, but a pair of guest list tickets to the third caller. I’m in the Boulder studio today and in the Kabaret studio, across the glass from me is Alexis Cole. Alexis, thanks so much for stopping by today. It’s gonna be a great show tomorrow. I know you’ll have fun with these guys and we’ll do our best to be a great audience for you. I wanna shout out engineer extraordinaire George Figs, who’s behind the glass on the other side of the studio. From your very first note and as your voice came into my headphones, I was just like, thank you, George, because nobody makes a musician in the studio sound better than imaginable. It’s George that we have to thank. Any parting words? 

Alexis Cole: I completely forgot to mention, but during the pandemic I started an online educational community called jazzvoice.com. So please check out if you’re a singer or know a singer, have them check out jazzvoice.com. It’s an educational community online. We meet online about five times a month, plus we have a jam session the first Sunday of every month online, hosted by Boulder’s own Jocelyn Medina. This is an international jam session guys, and Jocelyn started it in New York 10 years ago. We just held the 10th anniversary and she put it online. And then jazzvoice.com. became a sponsor. And also I’m the co-founder and co-director of the Virginia Beach Vocal Jazz Summit, which I know is a schlep from here. But we have had people, Joscelyn came one year and we had Terry Joe Jenkins another year who I came up and sang at her songbirds festival a couple of years ago. And that is from June 5th to the 8th in Virginia Beach. And it’s a conference, a gathering of all the jazz singers. So if you’re out there, you’re a jazz singer, know a jazz singer, just tell ’em to go to jazzvoice.com and they can find out also about the Virginia Beach Vocal Jazz Summit right from our site as well.

Doug Gertner: This sounds like the educator part of your long resume, teaching online and the summit in Virginia each year. And folks can learn all about that at alexiscole.com. Alexis Cole is my guest in the studio. What do you want to play us out with today? 

Alexis Cole: Okay. Let’s see. Would you rather have an original or a bluesy tune people recognize? 

Doug Gertner: I’m flipping the coin right now.

Alexis Cole: Here’s a quick original then. This is a song I wrote called Blues for All Us. It’s all the songs with women’s names written together, woven into a song. I’ll give a more thorough introduction at the show tomorrow.

[Alexis Cole plays Blues for All Us]

Doug Gertner: An original by Alexis Cole joining us in KGNU’S Kabaret Studio. Thanks so much for that. We’re looking forward to your show. That’s tomorrow night, April 17th at the Savoy in Denver, doors and Cocktails at 7:30. Tickets and more information at MASpresents.org and the KGNU presents calendar is another place that our listeners can check it out. I’m gonna say goodbye to our guest today and play a few messages and then as the music starts, for our last hour of music on the morning sound alternative, I invite you to gimme a call. I’ll see you at the show tomorrow night. You can learn more at maspresents.org. Thank you, Alexis. It’s great to have you. 

Alexis Cole: Thank you, Doug. Thanks George. See you guys tomorrow.