Althea Rene

Althea Rene leads a band as a flutist and delivers soulful, dynamic performances oriented toward contemporary jazz, funk, and instrumental R&B. After serving as a police officer, she surfaced on the Detroit scene during the 1990s and issued her first recording, Flute Talk, in 2000. She maintains a steady schedule of global festival appearances while expanding her appeal beyond core listeners through projects such as the 2006 release In the Moment and In the Flow from 2013.

Detroit-born Rene is the daughter of Dezie McCullers, a trumpeter, saxophonist, and longtime original Funk Brother. She was raised in a musical household and received early encouragement to pursue music studies, which led her to enroll in the classical program at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her encounter with jazz at Howard prompted a return to Detroit, where she completed police academy training and then spent eleven years dividing her schedule between duties as a Wayne County deputy sheriff and performances in local clubs. The independently produced Flute Talk appeared in 2000, followed by Chocolate Rush in 2003, In the Moment in 2006, and No Restrictions in 2008.

She has performed at numerous festivals, among them the North Sea Jazz Festival, Austin Jazz Festival, Norman Brown All-Star Jazz Cruise, and others. In 2013 she joined the Trippin 'n' Rhythm label and released the Michael Broening-produced In the Flow, which reached number one on the Billboard smooth jazz chart thanks to the singles "Sunday Cruise" and "Free." Two years afterward she issued the concert album Live in Detroit, documenting a performance at the Detroit Public Library. She published the book Becoming Chocolate Barbie: A Guide for Professional Women in the Music Business in 2018, then delivered her eighth studio album, Flawsome, the following year.