Sophie Alour was born in Quimper, in Brittany, on December 24, 1974, and is a saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist and composer. She began on the clarinet at the music school in Quimper at 13 and took up the tenor saxophone around the age of 19, learning mostly on her own and with courses at two Paris jazz schools, the CIM and the IACP. She has said that she did not much like the clarinet at the time and tried, without success, to make it sound like the tenor of John Coltrane.

She learned jazz on the bandstand. In 2000 she joined the Vintage Orchestra, a Paris big band whose record Thad (Nocturne, recorded in October 2003 and issued in 2004) plays arrangements by Thad Jones, with Alour on tenor saxophone and clarinet beside the trumpeter Yoann Loustalot, the saxophonist Thomas Savy and the bassist Yoni Zelnik, and Stéphane Belmondo as artistic director of the performance. Around the same time she formed a sextet with Belmondo and became a section player in the big band of the composer and conductor Christophe Dal Sasso, whose album Ouverture (Nocturne, recorded in February 2002, issued in 2004) has her on tenor saxophone and clarinet with Belmondo and his brother Lionel. In 2004 the Hammond organist Rhoda Scott recruited her for the Lady Quartet, a group of four women in which she plays alongside the alto saxophonist Lisa Cat-Berro and the drummer Julie Saury. Her own biography adds that she also played that year in the big band of Wynton Marsalis and took part in a project led by the drummer Aldo Romano.

Her first record as a leader, Insulaire (Nocturne, 2005), was recorded in February 2005 with Belmondo as music director. She wrote or arranged eight of its ten pieces, and the band has the guitarist Hugo Lippi, the pianist Guillaume Naud, the bassist Sylvain Romano and the drummer David Grébil, with the organist Emmanuel Bex on two tracks and Belmondo guesting on bugle on one. Uncaged (Nocturne, 2007) was recorded in December 2006 by a quartet with the keyboardist Laurent Coq, Zelnik on bass and the drummer Karl Jannuska, with the guitarist Sébastien Martel, a player from the rock scene, on four tracks. It brought her the Django d'Or for new talent in 2007. The trio album Opus 3 (Plus Loin Music, 2010), with Zelnik and Jannuska, was produced by the pianist Eric Legnini and recorded in September 2009.

La Géographie des Réves (Naïve, 2012) is a quintet record on which she plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet beside Loustalot on trumpet and flugelhorn, Stéphan Caracci on vibraphone, Nicolas Moreaux on double bass and Frédéric Pasqua on drums. Shaker (Naïve, 2013), recorded in March 2013, is a saxophone, organ and drums trio with Fred Nardin and Pasqua, with Lippi on guitar and Julien Alour on bugle among its guests. In May 2017 she recorded Time for Love at the Meudon studio, a record of standards including "I Loves You, Porgy", "Skylark" and "Stars Fell on Alabama" with the drummer André Ceccarelli, Romano on bass, the guitarist Sandro Zerafa, the wind ensemble Quintet Allegria, and track-by-track guests that include Belmondo, Alain Jean-Marie, the trombonist Glenn Ferris, the saxophonist David El Malek, Rhoda Scott and Coq. It was issued in February 2018. Her biography adds that in 2018 she joined a quartet led by the drummer Leon Parker with the bassist Or Bareket and Nardin, and that in 2015 she played two concerts, at the Philharmonie de Paris and in Luxembourg, in an all-star group assembled by Legnini with Joe Lovano, Ambrose Akinmusire and Biréli Lagréne as a tribute to the producer Norman Granz.

In 2019 she presented a new group at the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival with the Egyptian oud player Mohamed Abozekry, the drummer Donald Kontomanou, the pianist Damien Argentieri, the double bassist Philippe Aerts and the derbouka player Wassim Halal. The album Joy (Music From Source), recorded in September 2019 and released on February 28, 2020, collects her own compositions for that band and was nominated for album of the year at the Victoires du Jazz. enjoy (2021) widened the lineup, recorded on February 12, 2021 at La Grange au Lac, the hall of the Évian Resort, with Abozekry's brother Abdallah Abozekry on the saz, the violinist Fiona Monbet, the singer Raphaélle Brochet and the percussionist Ersoj Kazimov. The Académie du Jazz gave her the Prix Django-Reinhardt for 2020. In 2022 she won the Victoire du Jazz for instrumental artist and was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Le Temps virtuose (Music From Source, October 13, 2023) is a quartet record with the drummer Anne Paceo, the guitarist Pierre Perchaud and the cellist Guillaume Latil, who is a regular partner on later projects. She is on Rhoda Scott's Ladies & Gentlemen (Sunset Records, 2024), recorded in October 2023 with the singers Hugh Coltman, David Linx and Emmanuel Pi Djob. In November 2026 she released Nouveaux Mondes on Music From Source, a project announced as mixing pop and folk colours, electronics and minimalist loops, with the drummer and singer Ananda Brandao, the guitarist and singer Pierre Tereygeol, Tony Paeleman on synthesizer and arranged piano, Perchaud and Latil. She also appears with Géraldine Laurent and others on Lisa Cat-Berro's album Solaxis (Inside Air, September 2026).

Alour plays tenor saxophone first, with soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet as colours, and she is credited as composer or arranger on most of her own records. Her records change setting each time instead of repeating one band sound: a vibraphone quintet on La Géographie des Réves, a saxophone and organ trio on Shaker, standards with a wind quintet on Time for Love, an oud-led group on Joy and enjoy, and a guitar and cello quartet on Le Temps virtuose. Her own site presents Shaker and its piece "Joke", written for Rhoda Scott, as a nod to the 1960s organ funk of Jimmy Smith and Lonnie Smith, and describes Le Temps virtuose as drawing on jazz, rock, classical music and Malian music. John Coltrane's tenor sound was her early reference. In France her standing is marked by the Django d'Or of 2007, the Prix Django-Reinhardt for 2020 and the Victoire du Jazz of 2022.