Alix Combelle was a Paris-born tenor saxophonist, clarinettist and bandleader, one of the leading French swing tenors of the 1930s and 1940s, who recorded often with Django Reinhardt and with the American musicians who passed through Paris. He was born in Paris on June 15, 1912, the son of François Combelle, a classical saxophonist who played with the Band of the Republican Guard. He began as a drummer in the late 1920s, then took up the saxophone and clarinet and worked in Parisian theatre pit orchestras in the early 1930s.

In 1931 and 1932 he played in the band of the club La Croix du Sud under the altoist André Ekyan, alongside Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. In 1932 and 1933 he was in Grégor et ses Grégoriens, the dance orchestra of the Armenian bandleader Krikor "Grégor" Kelekian, and he also worked for the trumpeter Arthur Briggs, the violinist Michel Warlop and the trombonist Guy Paquinet's orchestra. By the middle of the decade he was counted among the best French swing players.

On April 28, 1937, in Paris, he was one of the four saxophonists on the session that produced "Crazy Rhythm" and "Honeysuckle Rose", billed to Coleman Hawkins and His All Star Jam Band. With Benny Carter and André Ekyan on alto and Hawkins on tenor beside him, and Reinhardt and Grappelli in the rhythm section, it was the first record issued by the new Swing label (SW. 1). From then on he worked often with visiting Americans: he recorded with Carter, with the trumpeter Bill Coleman (a 1938 Swing single of "Exactly Like You" and "Don't Get Tired" under his own name features Coleman on trumpet) and with the pianist Freddy Johnson, the singer Adelaide Hall and the clarinettist Danny Polo, and he played in Coleman's band when it included the Argentine guitarist Oscar Alemán. He also made records with the trumpeter Philippe Brun's bands and backed the singers Jean Sablon and Charles Trenet. He visited the United States twice in 1937 and 1938 and, by the accounts in AllMusic and the German Wikipedia, turned down an offer from Tommy Dorsey to return to Paris, where he joined Ray Ventura's orchestra.

At the start of the war he took over the big band Le Jazz de Paris and led it for several years, handing it later to the drummer Jerry Mengo. Reinhardt appears on the first seven tracks of the Classics reissue of his 1940 and 1941 sides, and a December 1940 session with Reinhardt put Combelle beside the saxophonists Christian Wagner and Hubert Rostaing. He played clarinet on the A side of the Quintette du Hot Club de France's wartime single of "Nuages". According to English Wikipedia's account of Rostaing's career, Reinhardt first asked Combelle to fill the chair left empty when Grappelli stayed in London; Combelle declined after finding another job and passed on Rostaing's name instead. During the Occupation the repertoire went out under camouflaged French titles; the Classics tracklist pairs "Ambiance" with "In the Mood" and "L'Horloge de grand-père" with "Grandfather's Clock".

After the Liberation he went on leading dance and jazz orchestras. His Swing "Jam-Session" singles of 1947 used a band with Jack Diéval on piano and Christian Bellest on trumpet. He worked again with Bill Coleman and with the Americans passing through Paris in the early 1950s: in 1953 he recorded the Vogue album Alix Combelle et son orchestre avec Buck Clayton, with Clayton as trumpet soloist and arranger and Combelle credited as writer, and he also worked with Lionel Hampton and Jonah Jones, and AllMusic says he sat in with Stan Kenton that year. From the middle of the 1950s he moved toward dance music. His orchestra covered "Skokiaan" for Philips in 1955, and in 1957 his son Philippe, born in 1939, played tenor and bass saxophone in the band before turning to drums. The 1958 Philips ten-inch Pour garder le tempo is a dance record whose titles include "Marche à la rock", "Rock à gogo" and "Charleston 58".

AllMusic dates his last recording as a leader to 1960. A Discogs entry of that year, a double seven-inch set called Coquetèle danse with his formation, lists the pianist and organist Georges Arvanitas and his son Philippe on drums among the players, none of them credited on the sleeve. He opened a nightclub in 1963. He passed away in Mantes-la-Jolie on February 26, 1978; his son Philippe Combelle continued as a drummer.

Combelle played straight-ahead swing and stayed there. AllMusic's biography says he held to that style and did not move into bebop, and that his best recordings date from 1935 to 1943, mostly for the Swing label. German Wikipedia describes a tenor style strongly shaped by Coleman Hawkins and Chu Berry; AllMusic names Chu Berry, Herschel Evans, Hawkins, Fats Waller, Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie as his heroes. The Basie debt shows in his repertoire: "Rock-A-Bye Basie", "Every Tub" and "Panassié Stomp" are all on the Pathé reissue of his 1937 to 1940 sides, and AllMusic credits Basie as composer of the last two. His reputation rests mostly on the Swing 78s he made as a bandleader and as the tenor beside visiting Americans. AllMusic credits him as composer of tunes such as "Al's Idea", "Cascades" and "Week-End Stomp". The record of his later years is mainly dance music rather than jazz.