Given the precocity of her artistry, it’s unsurprising that Alexis Lombre has often found herself filling the role of wunderkind sideperson among seasoned players, including in groups helmed by Nicole Mitchell, Ernest Dawkins, and many others. This event sees Alexis taking up the mantle of bandleader, shining a spotlight, as she puts it, “on who I truly am as an artist, not a sideperson: me.” Alexis and the prodigious New Orleanian percussionist Brian Richburg to perform an evening of Alexis’ original songs, an “eclectic mix of everything new and old,” in her words, including jazz, R&B; everything “fresh, dynamic, precise.” 

Fusing blues and church gospel with African and Caribbean-inspired rhythms of New Orleans street bands, Brian Richburg began honing his craft at age five, inspired by his father Brian Richburg Sr., the pastor and musician. A Berklee graduate who returns often to New Orleans to perform, Brian has toured extensively with legends including Nicholas Payton, Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr., Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Amina Figarova, and Joanne Bracken. In New York, he is a regular fixture at Ray Angry’s Monday night Nublu Club jam sessions, and in his own “New Legaxy” project, a “gumbo” blending rhythms from Congo Square, blues of Memphis, Kompa rhythms of Haiti, and the country flares of Virginia.