LaShera Ellis concerts

About LaShera Ellis

Chicago vocalist LaShera Moore-Ellis, billed at jazz dates as LaShera Ellis, works at the meeting point of soul-jazz, R&B, cabaret, and blues-rooted live performance. Her particular draw lies in the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, where her voice sits inside a seven-piece arrangement built around tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. That instrumentation gives a prospective listener a clear picture: this is a vocalist-fronted club set with room for horn writing and band interplay.

A Chicago vocalist’s route into the clubs

Ellis is a Chicago native whose official biography identifies her as a Columbia College Chicago graduate with a B.A. in Vocal Performance and a freelance vocalist. Her path begins in the city’s performing-arts circuit, encompassing work in theatre, church music, blues events, and cabaret alongside band work. The earliest dated item in her own archive is a senior showcase from April 3, 2012; her earliest clearly documented commercial recording credit arrives eight years later, on Jeannie Tanner’s 2020 single “I Wanna Be the Change.” That timeline frames Ellis as a performer shaped first by stages and ensembles, then by recorded collaboration.

One documented release, with performance archives around it

Ellis’s documented commercial recording trail is compact, which makes the 2020 single “I Wanna Be the Change” the essential starting point. Released on August 25, 2020 under a 2020 Jeannie Tanner copyright, the three-minute track credits Lashera Moore and Sophie Grimm as featured performers. Ellis’s site identifies the song as a Jeannie Tanner and Sophie Grimm composition inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; it functions as a vocal collaboration, placing her within a multi-singer statement instead of presenting a solo-album campaign. The change here is one of format: her name became attached to a formally released digital track after years of documented stage work. For the fuller picture of what Ellis brings to a room, the available evidence lives in performance material. Her official site preserves clips of “Stand By Me,” “Come Home To Love,” a 2017 Saline Music Festival appearance with the Forte Band, and a 2012 showcase program titled Soul of a Woman. These are useful listening and viewing documents for a concertgoer because they show her moving through standard-song interpretation, soul repertoire, and band-led settings. The record is therefore best approached as a concise release credit surrounded by a deeper catalogue of live and filmed vocal work.

Ensembles, tribute work, and Chicago collaborators

Ellis’s career is collaborative by design. She serves as a lead vocalist in Soundtracks of a Generation’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T. production, an Aretha Franklin tribute performed with a 10-piece band led by guitarist and music director Chris Forte. Her official credits also include the Forte Band, John Paris Ensemble, Funktastic Productions, and the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective. Within the Collective, the February 2026 lineup paired her with John Fournier on tenor saxophone, Amr Fahmy on piano, Micah Collier on bass, Mike Allemana on guitar, Keith Brooks on drums, and Ryan Nyther on trumpet. Those recurring ensemble settings explain the jazz-and-R&B designation better than a genre label alone.

A repeat visitor to small listening rooms

The strongest live record is local, frequent, and centered on dedicated jazz rooms. Winter’s Jazz Club listed sold-out Chicago Soul Jazz Collective dates featuring Ellis on February 27 and June 6, 2026, while her own schedule also lists Collective engagements on July 3, July 4, July 31, and August 7. That amounts to at least six Winter’s appearances across 2026 before the late-August return. Winter’s is a focused listening-room environment: the venue schedules 75-minute Friday and Saturday sets at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., and Northwestern describes its room as seating 100 listeners plus 25 in the bar. Ellis has also appeared with the Collective at Jazz Showcase, where an official 2025 bill placed her with the group’s horn-and-rhythm lineup. Expect the scale of an attentive Chicago club date, with two-set pacing and full-band soul-jazz arrangements.

The August run

The latest dated commercial recording credit in the available sources remains “I Wanna Be the Change” from 2020, while Ellis’s current activity is firmly onstage. On Friday, August 28, 2026, and Saturday, August 29, 2026, she returns to Winter’s Jazz Club in Chicago with the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective; WDCB lists both nights with 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. sets. These CrowdMate dates follow a summer of repeat Collective bookings at the same venue, making them part of an established residency pattern instead of a one-off pairing.

Start here

Start with “I Wanna Be the Change” for Ellis’s recorded ensemble credit; “Stand By Me” for a direct standard-song interpretation; and “Come Home To Love” for a Sarah Vaughan-associated ballad choice from her video archive.

Sources

1. LaShera Moore Music — LaShera Moore-Ellis
2. Chicago Soul Jazz Collective with LaShera Ellis — February 27, 2026 — Winter's Jazz Club
3. Chicago Soul Jazz Collective with LaShera Ellis — June 6, 2026 — Winter's Jazz Club
4. Chicago Soul Jazz Collective feat. LaShera Ellis — Jazz Showcase
5. I Wanna Be the Change (feat. Lashera Moore & Sophie Grimm) — Single — Apple Music
6. Info and Hours — Winter's Jazz Club
7. Winter's Jazz Club: Discount Programs — Northwestern University
8. Events Calendar (Jazz) — 90.9 FM WDCB
9. R.E.S.P.E.C.T: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin — Beverly Arts Center