By Margit Resch
Special to The Island News
The Alexis Cole Trio will kick off this year’s quintet of shows on Fripp Island with a big, jazzy bang at 5 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19, when the Alexis Cole Trio returns to Fripp, “this idyllic location,” to quote Alexis.
This time she will sing and play piano with Frank Duvall on bass and Ron Wiltrout on drums. Alexis is, so the Music Man Blog insists, “one of the very best Jazz Vocalists performing today.” It praises her “high energy, flawless pitch, perfect scat technique, warm, rich vocal tones and strong sense of swing! Alexis Cole leaves no doubt that she is a major Jazz star even though a lot of the jazz world has yet to discover her.”
On her own website, she is described as “an accomplished jazz performer with a sophisticated, urbane style and warm, resonant voice, well suited to traditional standards and swing.” The Fripp Island Friends of Music (FIFOM) and our many fans, who have heard Alexis in the past, can attest to all of the above and are all looking forward to enjoying her second show here.
Alexis’s peripatetic musical résumé is hard to capture in one paragraph. After studying Musical Theater at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, attending the University of Miami, and singing at a hotel in South Beach (which got her interested in jazz), she transferred to William Paterson University where she received her Bachelor of Music in 1998.
Her debut album, “Very Early,” was recorded in 1999. Then she volunteered for AmeriCorps for a year, followed by studying music in Mumbai, India, with the Jazz India Vocal Institute. In 2001, she worked for a year aboard the Carnival Victory, singing and playing piano with a quartet. From 2002 to 2005, she traveled extensively in Europe, participating every year in the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition.
In 2006, after earning her Master of Music from Queens College, she taught music for one semester in Quito, Ecuador. The next two years she spent in Tokyo, singing and playing piano at a famous lounge. In 2009 she enlisted in the U.S. Army, and for six years, she served as a staff sergeant and the lead singer for West Point’s big band, The Jazz Knights. Since then, she’s been teaching jazz voice at various universities, including her alma mater, and releasing several albums, most noteworthy in 2021 “Sky Blossom: Songs From My Tour of Duty,” an album composed of the arrangements written for Alexis by the West Point band director Scott Arcangel.
In 2020, she founded the online educational community JazzVoice.com and created a website to help emerging musicians find performing jobs — www.MusicAuditions.com. A singer, pianist and educator. What an amazing professional journey.
The Alexis Cole Trio, that you will hear on Fripp, includes Frank Duvall, bass, and Ron Wiltrout, drums. Both are graduates of the University of South Carolina and members of The Charleston Jazz Orchestra.
Duvall, upon graduation, moved to New York City, where he played in popular jazz clubs, performed in off-Broadway shows and worked extensively in recording studios on music for television and movies. Having performed professionally both on bass and piano with jazz legends like Marian McPartland, Freddie Hubbard, and Dizzy Gillespie, he teaches jazz bass at the College of Charleston and is also the music director and primary arranger for the big band at Forte Jazz Lounge in Charleston.
Wiltrout, the drummer, is much in demand because he is proficient in many genres. Transcending the familiar confines of jazz and demonstrating his exceptional talent and adaptability, he recently performed in a groundbreaking operatic work by Ted Hearne and Daniel Fish in Germany, a project that required him to navigate the complexities of highly rhythmic music.
It’s a pleasure, so he says, “when I spend a week playing six different gigs with six different groups playing six different styles or roles, and they all feel good and natural.”
You should become a member of Fripp Island Friends of Music (FIFOM). Membership gives you access to all five concerts, including the post-performance receptions, where you meet the musicians while enjoying delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared fresh by Harold’s Chef Services, and more. It also helps fund FIFOM’s charitable Music-in-the-Schools mission.
The basic FIFOM membership, $100, has not changed. Tickets at the door are $30. FIFOM is supported by the South Carolina Arts Commission. To become a member, text or call Rebecca Climer at 615-594-1552 or email her at rebecca.climer@gmail.com. Go to frippfriendsofmusic.com for more information.
See you Sunday, Oct. 19 at 5 pm at the Fripp Island Community Centre.
Want to Go?
Who: The Alexis Cole Trio
What: Fripp Island Friends of Music Concert Series
When: 5 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19
Where: Fripp Island Community Centre
Tickets: $30 at the door.
