Billie Davies has been nominated "Best Drummer" for the Best Of The Beat Awards 2019. The OffBeat Music and Cultural Arts Foundation’s Best of the Beat Nominations are in. We solicited nominations from musicians and many others in the music community. We then gave the results to our writers and editors and with input from both, determined the nominations in each category. Click here to vote! The public starts voting on December 26 at OffBeat.com and voting ends on January 15. Winners will be announced at the Best of the Beat, which will be held at the New Orleans Jazz Market on Thursday January 30. This is the second time that Billie has been nominated for her exceptional talent since she has moved to New Orleans. The 2017 Best Of The Beat awards nominated her for Best Contemporary Jazz Artist. Billie would like to express her sincere thanks for the recognition. HER MUSIC IS IT'S OWN ORIGINAL BEAST Billie Davies is an American jazz drummer and composer best known for her free and avant-garde jazz compositions since the mid-1990s, and her improvisational drumming techniques. The music of BILLIE DAVIES line-ups moves beyond Jazz with it's own unique and truly improvisational style "...reminding us sometimes of many different things but in the end, it is its own original beast, as powerful as anything more well-known musicians have created.. Jerome Wilson, All About Jazz". On her latest album: PERSPECTIVES II BILLIE DAVIES TRIO REVIEWED IN JAZZ VIEWS “Given the melting pot that New Orleans continues to be for jazz, it is not surprising that Davies has based herself here, nor that the musicians she gathers around her are not easy to pigeon-hole into one style of jazz (or even one style of music in any wider sense). This is another very successful experiment by Davies in mining the creative depths of improvised music making, producing a sound that cannot be simply labelled as jazz (even if it fully has the swing of jazz in all of the pieces brought by Davies and Watkinson in their dynamic partnership) and which really does respond to the cosmic dimensions of its inspiration.” - Chris Baber, Jazz Views (May, 2019)
“The spiritual jazz tradition, as exemplified by John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, has been having a resurgence over the past few years in places like Los Angeles and Great Britain. Now here is evidence that some musicians in New Orleans are going down that path as well. Billie Davies is a drummer from Belgium who now lives and works in the Big Easy and this recording, available only in download form, captures a live performance of her trio, plus added guests, creating over an hour of heady, uplifting music. This is a loose, free-flowing concoction not quite like anything else out there. Like the best forward-thinking music, Billie Davies' work reminds you of many different things but in the end, it is its own original beast, as powerful as anything more well-known musicians have created this year.” - Jerome Wilson, All About Jazz (Dec 17, 2018)
“Given the melting pot that New Orleans continues to be for jazz, it is not surprising that Davies has based herself here, nor that the musicians she gathers around her are not easy to pigeon-hole into one style of jazz (or even one style of music in any wider sense). This is another very successful experiment by Davies in mining the creative depths of improvised music making, producing a sound that cannot be simply labelled as jazz (even if it fully has the swing of jazz in all of the pieces brought by Davies and Watkinson in their dynamic partnership) and which really does respond to the cosmic dimensions of its inspiration.” - Chris Baber, Jazz Views (May, 2019)
“Power Players: Billie Davies Plays Her Own Music. Freedom and expression. These are the things that matter most to Billie Davies, who has used the drums as a means to express herself freely for more than 40 years now.” - Noé Cugny, OffBeat Magazine (Jun 27, 2018)
“Watch: Live Spontaneous Improvisation From Billie Davies Trio And Friends. The latest live performance video from the Billie Davies trio is an all-spontaneous improvisation with a piano, reeds, bass, drums and spoken word. It was filmed at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and is the second evolution of Davies’ PERSPECTIVES.” - OffBeat Staff, OffBeat Magazine (Feb 16, 2018)
“Billie Davies and her team of jazztronauts lace together a bitter sweet story of adventure on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams that is as much dripping in nostalgia as it is taking the listener to new auditory places never before visited- all while wrapping you up in it’s very sexy sound & style. The whole album puts me in a unique mood as if the nostalgia I am feeling were my own! LOVE it!” - Raphaelle O'Neal, NOLAButterfly (Mar 21, 2017)
“Despite the best efforts of James M. Cain, Chinatown and BoJack Horseman, L.A. noir still doesn’t get the respect it deserves next to what goes on in Gotham. This is doubly true for jazz, where a combo of experimentalism, perceived lack of gravitas and the general laid-back vibe of West Coast Cool doom it to second-fiddle status, seemingly forever. All these years later, and when folks want to feel how La La Land destroys the dreams of its citizens, they dig out “Hotel California,” not Chet Baker. Shame, really. If anyone could change that perception, it’s pioneering avant-garde drummer Billie Davies, a disciple of fellow “California Hard” stylist Max Roach and someone who, true to her gypsy resume, actually lived on Hollywood Boulevard for a time. Her latest release is typically daring, capturing the perfectly frightening freedom of being lost in El Lay ...” - Robert Fontenot, OffBeat Magazine (Feb 08, 2017)
JAZZ'HALO
Billie Davies - On Hollywood Boulevard
by Claude Loxhay - Belgium
Published: January, 2017
The Original Article appeared first in Jazz'Halo in the French language.
A native of Bruges, Billie Davies discovered the drums thanks to her grandfather. After crossing Europe, she moved to the United States in 1986, where she met, among others, saxophonist John Handy and bassist Leroy Vinegar. She has now moved to New Orleans.
After “Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon”, recorded with three blowers (album chronicled on jazz'halo.be, at the same time as an interview of the Belgian percussionist), here is an album recorded with a quartet where she finds herself back with Evan Oberla who appeared in the previous album. Born in Columbus, Oberla studied trombone and piano, became a member of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and eventually settled in New Orleans where he met, among others, Allen Stone. With his RFG Quintet, he recorded “May Your Vice Be Nice”. Bassist Oliver Watkinson, who was part of the trio of trombonist Peter Gustafson and singer Iris P., who forged a name for herself on the New Orleans scene in Soul music and R & B, complete the lineup.
The album is directly inspired by the famous Los Angeles Boulevard, where Billie Davies lived for several years. The project was born in 2012 and took its definitive form in New Orleans in 2016. The seven tracks of the album combine, on a very defined groove, original compositions of the leader and spaces for improvisation.
“On Hollywood Boulevard 1”, on the inextinguishable drive of the drums and the big sound of the electric bass, are interwoven electric keyboards and piano sequences. On “The Girl In The Window” and “Jaracanda”, Iris P.'s undulating voice interacts with the keyboards in a very soulful atmosphere, while “Palm Trees” is part of the ballad register and “Yellow Sunshine” is a fine example of spoken words that develops on a background of synth with undulating colors. As for the 6th track, “Hollywood Boulevard”, it develops on a very funky rhythm.
A beautiful example of the vitality of the New Orleans scene.
- (Roughly translated from French with the help of Google, FreeTranslation.com and Dictionary.com)
Original Article:
Native de Bruges, Billie Davies a découvert la batterie grâce à son grand-père. Après avoir sillonné l'Europe, elle s'est établie aux Etats-Unis en 1986, où elle a croisé, notamment, le saxophoniste John Handy et le bassiste Leroy Vinegar. Elle s'est maintenant installée à La Nouvelle- Orléans.
Après Hand in hand in the hand of the moon, enregistré avec trois souffleurs (album chroniqué sur jazz'halo.be, en même temps qu'une interview de la percussionniste belge), voici un album gravé en quartet dans lequel elle retrouve Evan Oberla qui figurait dans le précédent album.
Né à Columbus, Oberla a étudié le trombone et le piano, fait partie du Columbus Jazz Orchestra pour finalement s'établir à La Nouvelle Orléans où il a côtoyé, entre autres, Allen Stone. Avec son RFG Quintet, il a enregistré May your vice be nice.
Complètent la formation, le bassiste Oliver Watkinson qui a fait partie du trio du tromboniste Peter Gustafson et la chanteuse Iris P. qui s'est forgé un nom sur la scène orléanaise dans les registres de la soul music et du R&B.
L'album est directement inspiré du célèbre boulevard de Los Angeles, sur lequel Billie Davies a habité pendant plusieurs années. Le projet est né en 2012 et a pris sa forme définitive à La Nouvelle Orléans en 2016.Les sept plages de l'album allient, sur un groove très marqué, compositions originales de la leader et espaces pour l'improvisation.
On Hollywood Boulevard 1, sur la pulsion inextinguible de la batterie et le gros son de la basse électrique, s'imbriquent claviers électriques et séquences de piano. Sur The girl in the window et Jaracanda, la voix ondoyante d'Iris P. dialogue avec les claviers dans une atmosphère très soul, tandis que Palm Trees relève du registre de la ballade et Yellow Sunshine est un bel exemple de "spoken words" qui se développe sur fond de synthé aux couleurs ondoyantes. Quant à la 6e plage, Hollywood Boulevard, elle se développe sur un rythme très funky.
Un bel exemple de la vitalité de la scène de La Nouvelle Orléans.
~Claude Loxhay, JAZZ'HALO
DownBeat Magazine
Billie Davies
On Hollywood Boulevard
By Bobby Reed
Published: January 03, 2017
When DownBeat profiled Billie Davies in its May 2016 issue the drummer was backed by a band called Bad Boyzzzz but her current quartet is called A Nu Experience. And although Davies is a drummer based in New Orleans, her new album contains a healthy dose of r&b and was inspired by a period of about 5 years when she lived on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Six of the seven tracks on the album feature vocals by Iris P, a singer with impressive range who is also adept at spoken word passages.
Davies supplies the elctronic drums and percussion, joined by two musicians from Bad Boyzzzz: Oliver Watkinson (electric bass) and Evan Oberla (electric piano, synthesizer and trombone).
The program doesn't shy away from the darker elements of life on Hollywood Boulevard, with lyrics that allude to thugs, drugs, pimps and prostitutes. As a bandleader, Davies delivers an ambitious program that incorporates r&b-flavored vocals, propulsive bass lines, drum patterns with a swing feel, occasionally blues-tinged keyboard work, growling trombone, epic prog-rock synthesizer washes and brief bouts of hip-hop turntableism, all tied together with an improviser's approach. Indeed much of the album feels like improvised adventure, but that doesn't prevent Iris P from injecting some memorable, repeated vocal hooks as on "The Girl In The Window" when she sings about an "unreachable dream".
~Bobby Reed, DownBeat Magazine
his VOICE
BILLIE DAVIES - On Hollywood Boulevard
by Jan Hocek, Prague, Czech Republic.
Published: January 2, 2017
The Original Article appeared first in his VOICE in the Czech language.
Translation from Czech to English:
American drummer and composer Billie Davies released a new album on December 10, again on her own label Cobra Basement Jazz - named On Hollywood Boulevard and refers to her several years living in Los Angeles and residing right on the boulevard. But as her previous excellent album Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon from last year (our review here ), the newest has already been recorded in New Orleans, where Billie Davies lives since March 2014.
The concept for the album began to emerge as early as 2012, when Davies wrote down the first melodic and textual ideas. It was in September 2016, in one go and live in a one room studio, that all the material was recorded and filmed, during which a set of photographs of Hollywood Boulevard was shown in a single frequency, to inspire and evoke the appropriate mood. Two compositions out of seven were formed specifically into collective improvisation. They open and close the album, and are one of the most successful examples of that proclaimed new direction of New Orleans jazz; Some local journalists present music of Billie Davies ranks even to nu-jazz. It seems to me somewhat misleading, because in this little box is quite a different jazz, at least for Europeans. Instead of electronic samples and programs it is dominated by live electronic drums played by Billie Davies; also exclusively live are keyboard instruments (acoustic and electric piano, synthesizer) and trombone, played by Evan Oberla, and bass figures, directed by Oliver Watkinson. These players indeed make the current Davies trio, which this year featured briskly around New Orleans and the surrounding area. Oberla came into the cradle of jazz in February 2015 from Ohio, where he was a respected member of the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra, Watkinson came on in the summer of 2015, having previously studied in Boston with Dave Holland and Cecil McBee. A new phenomenon in Billie Davies’ formations, is a singer! Although she is from New Orleans, she is not a typical jazz vocalist, but rather belongs to r'n'b - says Iris P. She also writes extravagant poetry (the author of the lyrics to the freely improvised final composition) and she considers all her artistic effort to be her mission to save the world ...
The nearly seventy three minute album opens purely instrumental, with the collectively improvised song “On Hollywood Boulevard 1”. It starts rather underground, almost garage, but then the sound cleans up and even begins to discern some sort of Asian connotations, thanks to the coloring el. piano and synthesizer. But once the rhythm gains dominance, especially the very sparse and explosive el. drums, we begin to gasp. It is not possible to get it all in the first listening. As with the last album with the brass section; but there it was, due, multifaceted. This is because the listener gets accustomed. Once tuned in, it becomes just an experience. And an adventure. In that looseness are mainly drums, often on edge; It will stop the flow of music, not only cementing it but also starting to hit it straight. And with a lot of nerve! But then comes an unexpected break and the trio takes a straightforward hard-bop breath and immediately afterwards a firing jazz-rock core, augmented by a synthesizer solo attack. Then comes a trombone solo, but against all the conventions it is ominously veiled. And all this, in less than ten minutes, will result in a lyrical sound of an acoustic piano. The following “The Girl in the Window” is tuned a bit to blues; The singer uses a full voice register, we will hear the trombone, organ and piano combination again of underpainting and at the end of the recitation an ambient background. “Jacaranda” seems to evoke the origin of the South American tree with blue flowers, which borders the somewhat kitschy Hollywood Boulevard. At first, the sweet lyrical, pop singing cantilena, which drop down into an into tears piano, and fortunately, turns into a really tough rhythm, although a ballad, but with passionate seething r'n'b recitations at the end. "Yellow Sunshine" says recitation, that shows melodically catchy melodies, evoking the popular music of the late 60s and 50s with influences of country music. Around the middle of this eleven minute song we will hear an instrumental divorce with irregular rhythmic figures (sometimes even forming a tangle) and trombone solos and el. piano that are pleasant to swing in Soul. “Palm Trees” mixes poetry with onomatopoeic half recitation of the power and magic of poetry, which results in a jazz ballad with proper phrasing. Gradually, especially the drums are intensifying, there is a breaking of dynamics and rhythm, ending with a free instrumental and vocal improvisation. Hollywood Boulevard is built on dense hip-hop rhythms, the singer intensely half sings, half declaiming on social problems and the American dream, then her voice turns gospel and blues urgency. Musical finesse are carbonated unexpected inspirations; once it is an urgent trombone fanfare from Copland where we hear echoes of both the musical, swing, and even free-jazz; and into this collage cuts an ambulance siren.
- (Roughly translated from Czech with the help of Google and FreeTranslation.com)
Original article:
10. prosince vyšlo nové album americké bubenice a skladatelky Billie Davies, a to opět na jejím vlastním labelu Cobra Basement Jazz – zove se On Hollywood Boulevard a vztahuje se k jejímu několikaletému životu v Los Angeles a bydlišti právě na tomto bulváru. Ovšem stejně jako její předchozí výtečné album Hand In Hand In the Hand Of the Moon z loňského roku (naše recenze zde), byla novinka natočena již v New Orleansu, kde Billie Davies žije od března 2014.
Koncepce alba začala vznikat již v roce 2012, kdy Daviesová zapisovala první melodické a textové nápady. V září 2016 byl pak na jeden zátah a naživo v jedné studiové místnosti natočen veškerý materiál, přičemž během této jediné frekvence byl promítán soubor fotografií z Hollywood Boulevardu. Pro inspiraci a navození patřičné nálady. Dvě kompozice z celkových sedmi totiž vznikly cíleně kolektivní improvizací. Ty otevírají a uzavírají album a patří k nejzdařilejším ukázkám onoho proklamovaného nového směru neworleánského jazzu; někteří tamní publicisté nynější hudbu Billie Davies řadí dokonce do nu-jazzu. To je podle mne poněkud zavádějící, neboť v této škatulce je jazz zcela jiný, alespoň pro Evropana. Místo elektronických samplů a programů dominují živě hrané elektronické bicí Billie Davies; taktéž výlučně naživo jsou hrány klávesové nástroje (akustické a elektrické piano, syntezátor) a trombón, jež obsluhuje Evan Oberla, a baskytarové figury v režii Olivera Watkinsona. Tito hráči ostatně tvoří současné Daviesové trio, jež letos čile vystupovalo po New Orleansu a okolí. Oberla přišel do kolébky jazzu loni v únoru z Ohia, kde byl členem respektovaného Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra, Watkinson se přistěhoval v létě 2015, když předtím studoval v Bostonu u Dava Hollanda a Cecila McBee. Sestavu na albu pak doplňuje nový fenomén ve formacích Billie Davies, totiž zpěvačka! Ačkoli je z New Orleansu, není vokalistkou typicky jazzovou, spíše se řadí do r´n´b – říká si Iris P. Píše také extravagantní poezii (je autorkou textu k volně improvizované závěrečné skladbě) a celé své umělecké snažení považuje za svoji misi k záchraně světa...
Bezmála třiasedmdesátiminutové album otevírá čistě instrumentální, kolektivně improvizovaná skladba On Hollywood Boulevard 1. Začíná spíše undergroundově, skoro garážově, ale posléze se zvuk vyčistí a začneme dokonce rozeznávat jakési asijské konotace, a to díky zabarvení el.piana a syntezátoru. Ovšem jakmile získá dominanci rytmika, především pak značně rozvolněné a výbušné el.bicí, začneme lapat po dechu. To není možné pojmout prvním poslechem. Stejně jako u loňské desky s dechovou sekcí; jenže tam to bylo díky mnohovrstevnatosti. Tady je to proto, aby si posluchač zvykl. Ale jakmile se naladí, začne to být teprve zážitek. A dobrodružství. V oné rozvolněnosti jsou především bicí mnohdy na hraně; to přestanou hudební tok nejen stmelovat, ale začnou jej přímo rozbíjet. A to hodně nervně! Jenže pak přijde nečekaný zlom a trio nabere přímočarý hard-bopový dech a hned nato vystřelí jazz-rockový náboj, umocněný sólovým útokem syntezátoru. Přijde trombónové sólo, ale proti všem zvyklostem je zlověstně zastřené. A toto vše během necelých deseti minut vyústí v lyrický zvuk akustického piana. Následující The Girl In the Window je naladěna trochu do blues; zpěvačka využívá plného hlasového rejstříku, dočkáme se opět hororového trombónu, kombinace varhanní a klavírní podmalby a v závěru recitace s ambientním pozadím. Jacaranda patrně evokuje onen původem jihoamerický strom s modrými květy, jenž lemuje poněkud kýčovitě hollywoodský bulvár. Zprvu lyricky nasládlý, popově kantilénový zpěv, do něhož kanou slzy piana, se naštěstí promění v pořádně tvrdý rytmus sice baladického, ale přesto náruživě kypícího r´n´b, zakončeného recitací. Yellow Sunshine uvádí recitace, z níž vyplyne melodicky chytlavá melodie, evokující populární hudbu přelomu 50.a 60.let šmrncnutou country. Zhruba v polovině této jedenáctiminutovky se dočkáme instrumentálního rozvedení s nepravidelným rytmickými figurami (vytvářejícími místy až změť) a sóly trombonu a el.piana, které se příjemně přehoupne do soulu. V Palm Trees se mísí zvukomalebná lyrika s polorecitací o síle a kouzlu poezie, která vyústí v jazzovou baladu s patřičným frázováním. Postupně především bicí nabývají na intenzitě, dochází k lámání dynamiky a rytmu, zakončené volnou instrumentální i vokální improvizaci. Hollywood Boulevard je postaven na hutném hip-hopovém rytmu, zpěvačka vypjatě polozpívá o sociálních problémech a americkém snu, pak se jí hlas zabarví gospelem a bluesovou naléhavostí. Hudební finesy jsou syceny nečekanými inspiracemi; jednou je to fanfárově naléhavý trombón jak z Coplanda, uslyšíte ozvěny muzikálu, swingu, dokonce free-jazzu; a do této koláže se zařezává siréna sanitky.
Závěrečný track On Hollywood Boulevard 2 je nejdelší položkou alba (13:49) a představuje navýsost zdařilou kolektivní improvizaci, včetně zpívaného textu. V úvodu kvartet vykouzlí lahodnou a jímavou píseň; po trombonovém sóle dojde k vzedmutí emocí, kdy bicí začnou dominovat a tato zvuková intenzita ve spojení s až ambientními plochami a průniky elektronické špíny a ruchů vytváří obrovské napětí. Proměnlivý hudební tok vás zcela pohltí...
Billie Davies: On Hollywood Boulevard
Cobra Basement Jazz
~Jan Hocek, his VOICE
Skope Magazine
Billie Davies – ‘On Hollywood Boulevard’
By BeachSloth.com
Published: December 19, 2016
“On Hollywood Boulevard” is a glamorous, gorgeous mixture of jazz and funk displaying Billie Davies’s deft skill. Luxurious textures dominate the collection as Billie Davies draws from a wide variety of sources. Everything simply glistens as the attention to tone and texture are of the utmost importance. Bass works wonders alongside the rather loose, careful rhythms that adorn the album. Mood serves an important function as Billie Davies explore vast terrains, oftentimes delving into surreal, otherworldly soundscapes.
Things start off on an impassioned note with the phenomenal opener “On Hollywood Boulevard 1”. With almost a noir take on jazz, the mysterious shadowy nature of the piece results something deeply compelling. Vocals accompany the laid-back attitude of “The Girl In The Window”. Delivered with a sultry sensibility, the way the song builds itself up is quite wonderful as the song unfurls in a rather celebratory spirit. Careful grooves define the ritualistic work of “Jacaronda”. Some of the detail, such as the tactile percussion, gives the song a quiet intimate feeling. Funk dominates over the spirited performance, as the synthesizer sweeps give the song a chilled hue to it. Electronics and jazz come together on the narrative of “Hollywood Boulevard” where its hip-hop structure adds to the song’s cache. Returning to the album’s beginnings in jazz is the spacious sprawl of “On Hollywood Boulevard 2”.
Listen on iTunes Apple Music
Billie Davies offers a cool confident update on jazz with the playful nature of “On Hollywood Boulevard”.
Billie Davies website
~BeachSloth.com, Skope Magazine
All About Jazz
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard
By Sacha O'Grady
Published: December 6, 2016
From Buddy Rich to Billy Cobham, jazz drumming (as opposed to pop-rock) has been a predominately masculine affair, and something which perhaps remains so even to this day -which isn't to say that women are excluded from the club entirely.
Drummer Billie Davies began her career in Europe, performing extensively across the continent, before immigrating to America, until eventually she made her way to New Orleans in 2014, teaming up with IRIS P (vocals), Evan Oberla (electric piano, trombone) and Oliver Watkinson (electric bass) to form A Nu Experience in 2016.
On Hollywood Boulevard is the Belgian born and award winning musician/composer's sixth album, and consists of seven compositions that are both fresh and engaging. Recorded live in front of a small intimate audience in attendance, each performance was captured in one take at Cobra Basement Studios in her home town of New Orleans. Davies describes the inspiration behind her latest release as being about "the people that live there, the environment, the atmosphere, and how it all comes to life everyday... I lived right in the middle of it all for 5 years on Hollywood Boulevard."
First track "On Hollywood Boulevard 1" is an intriguing blend of electric piano, drums, spacey electronics and haunting trombone, as if continuing from where Get Up With It period Miles Davis ended. For almost ten minutes, Davies' not only keeps time but also stretches it, successfully adding a few additional dimensions via her drum kit in the process. Things dramatically change pace with the utterly enchanting "The Girl In The Window," where the instruments delicately interweave to create an intricate web around IRIS P's exquisite vocals. Similarly "Jacaranda," another slow, seductively timeless number centred round IRIS's siren-like inflections.
But it is Oberla's electric piano that is the politely dominant instrument throughout this record, whose playing is full of subtlety and nuance, be it on the iridescent "Palm Trees," or the largely spoken word "Yellow Sunshine," each of these compositions sparkle and glisten with a compelling yet unassuming sophistication.
The social diatribe that is "Hollywood Boulevard," delivered by IRIS behind a modern funky avant-garde backbeat, wouldn't seem out of place on either a Gil Scott-Heron or Patti Smith record, while final number "On Hollywood Boulevard 2," seamlessly shifts between free-jazz and more time-honoured jazz territory, highlighting the communicative synergy between all four artists.
Clearly Billie Davies and A Nu Experience are a class act, one full of bold inventive and inspired interplay. Let us hope it won't be their only project together, and that there will be more adventurous music to come.
Track Listing: On Hollywood Boulevard 1; The Girl In The Window; Jacaranda; Yellow Sunshine; Palm Trees; Hollywood Boulevard; On Hollywood Boulevard
Personnel: Billie Davies: Electric Drums; IRIS P: Vocals; Evan Oberla: Electric Piano, Synth, Trombone; Oliver Watkinson: Electric Bass
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Self Produced | Style: Beyond Jazz
~Sacha O'Grady, All About Jazz
Moon Under Water
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience - On Hollywood Boulevard
By Sacha O'Grady
Published: December 3, 2016
From Buddy Rich to Billy Cobham, jazz drumming (as opposed to pop-rock) has been a predominately masculine affair, and something which perhaps remains so even to this day -which isn't to say that women are excluded from the club entirely.
Drummer Billie Davies began her career in Europe, performing extensively across the continent, before immigrating to America, until eventually she made her way to New Orleans in 2014, teaming up with IRIS P (vocals), Evan Oberla (electric piano, trombone) and Oliver Watkinson (electric bass) to form A Nu Experience in 2016.
On Hollywood Boulevard is the Belgian born and award winning musician/composer's sixth album, and consists of seven compositions that are both fresh and engaging. Recorded live in front of a small intimate audience in attendance, each performance was captured in one take at Cobra Basement Studios in her home town of New Orleans. Davies describes the inspiration behind her latest release as being about "the people that live there, the environment, the atmosphere, and how it all comes to life everyday... I lived right in the middle of it all for 5 years on Hollywood Boulevard."
First track "On Hollywood Boulevard 1" is an intriguing blend of electric piano, drums, spacey electronics and haunting trombone, as if continuing from where Get Up With It period Miles Davis ended. For almost ten minutes, Davies' not only keeps time but also stretches it, successfully adding a few additional dimensions via her drum kit in the process. Things dramatically change pace with the utterly enchanting "The Girl In The Window," where the instruments delicately interweave to create an intricate web around IRIS P's exquisite vocals. Similarly "Jacaranda," another slow, seductively timeless number centred round IRIS's siren-like inflections.
But it is Oberla's electric piano that is the politely dominant instrument throughout this record, whose playing is full of subtlety and nuance, be it on the iridescent "Palm Trees," or the largely spoken word "Yellow Sunshine," each of these compositions sparkle and glisten with a compelling yet unassuming sophistication.
The social diatribe that is "Hollywood Boulevard," delivered by IRIS behind a modern funky avant-garde backbeat, wouldn't seem out of place on either a Gil Scott-Heron or Patti Smith record, while final number "On Hollywood Boulevard 2," seamlessly shifts between free-jazz and more time-honoured jazz territory, highlighting the communicative synergy between all four artists.
Clearly Billie Davies and A Nu Experience are a class act, one full of bold inventive and inspired interplay. Let us hope it won't be their only project together, and that there will be more adventurous music to come.
Track Listing: On Hollywood Boulevard 1; The Girl In The Window; Jacaranda; Yellow Sunshine; Palm Trees; Hollywood Boulevard; On Hollywood Boulevard
Personnel: Billie Davies: Electric Drums; IRIS P: Vocals; Evan Oberla: Electric Piano, Synth, Trombone; Oliver Watkinson: Electric Bass
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Self Produced | Style: Beyond Jazz
~Sacha O'Grady, Moon Under Water
Jazz Views
Billie Davies: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon
By Chris Baber
Published: June 16, 2016
Billie Davies: drums; Alex Blaine: saxophone; Braden Lewis: trumpet; Evan Oberla: trombone; Ed Strohsahl: bass.
Billie Davies is a very accomplished free-jazz drummer. Born in Belgium, she now lives in New Orleans, having spent much of her life living peripatetically. The press release and liner notes of this CD are full of stories and these provide both an introduction and, I think, an explanation of her playing. Previous reviewers have made much of the self-taught nature of her drumming. While this is a feature of one of the stories in the press release, I defy any listener to distinguish her playing from someone ‘schooled’ in jazz drumming. There is a vitality and fluidity in the way that she plays the drum kit and this is what I mean by the idea that her stories explain her drumming; she speaks through the drums to the other players on this dates, asking questions of them and replying with the fusion of styles that she has built up over her travels.
One of the stories concerns her being offered a place at Berklee by Max Roach, but turning this down in order to travel and play across Europe and North Africa. Another story has her improvising drums while the painter Serge Vandercamp paints over three consecutive nights of a full moon in 1995. It is this latter event that the recording celebrates. The recording session itself is interesting. As the linear notes explain “This music was recorded live in one take on an afternoon in April with all musicians in one 600 square feet room”. To inspire the players, a slide of the photographs from the time when Vandercamp painted and Davies drummed was shown continuously. For each of the movements in this ‘jazz symphony’ one of Vandercamp’s paintings was placed in the room so all the musicians could see it. One might imagine this as some sort of invocation of the spirit of the dead artist (Vandercam died in 2005) and that New Orleans was an appropriate place for such a ritual. Musically, there is a strong sense of the New Orleans funeral, with the sax, trumpet and trombone working some slow marches in the early movements and picking up the tempo later on. Throughout, Davies drums with a spare intelligence, creating a pulsing dialogue between her playing and the other instruments. The movements involve short phrases that players introduce, that others pick up and pick apart and then replace with new ones. The detail of the phrases and the ways in which the collective development of the pieces works so well make it difficult to see this as a fully improvised set. However, the liner notes provide a helpful description of the pieces in terms of their keys (moving from D/D#, to C/C#, G/G#, F/F#, E, A/A# and ending in B) with the whole symphony working through the whole-tone scale. How the pieces themselves relate to the paintings is not so easy to discern (although the CD helpfully provides reproductions of the paintings, should the listener wish to contemplate these as the music plays). This is probably less important for the listener to appreciate the music than it was as an inspiration for the players. What is recorded here is strong evidence that Billie Davies is great jazz drummer working free-jazz into conversational and inspirational music.
~Chris Baber, Jazz Views
All About Jazz
Billie Davies: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon
By Budd Kopman
Published: May 24, 2016
Free drummer Billie Davies calls Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon a symphony, which implies composition, larger planned structures, etc. Nothing like that is here, as the music was improvised and recorded in one session. However, this music is not just a free session of highly intuitive and sensitive players; it has a reason for being, and that reason is the intersection of the life paths of two artists working in different media -Davies, a musician and Serge Vandercam, a painter, at specific time and place.
In correspondence, Davies described their meeting and subsequent relationship: That is a long story that started with me re- discovering the CoBrA art movement after having been away from all that culture, I was surrounded by in Europe and that represented my inner self, my roots and my energy, for too long. Serge Vandercam became the absolute what purity of expression is concerned to me, and I had to meet this man. So after searching for a while to get his phone number, and found it, I called him up just like I did with many other artists... :) We became friends on the phone, and talked for hours, between Brussels and San Francisco, and finally about three years later, in 1993 I think, I went to visit him in Brussels while I was in Europe visiting my family in Bruges. I so believed in his art as being a true and pure expression, that I got him a one- man show at a Gallery in San Francisco in 1995, that night there was a light beam shining up in the city, his art was electrifying and it was during that time also, as he was staying with me for about a month, that we created the work, him painting and me playing the drums, in the 3 days of the full moon. I remember one night, I realized I did not know who I was anymore, I woke him up by calling him, there was a nine hour difference, and I cried it out to him, that I did not know who I was anymore and what I was supposed to be, and he just yelled back at me to stop whining like a little girl and to listen to what he had to say: "YOU ARE AN ARTIST, accept it and get over it, I wake up every morning and go to bed every night asking myself who I am! You are an artist, and never ever forget that again."
Now, of course, the music stands on its own without all of this introduction and references; but there is no doubt that looking at the Vandercam's paintings from 1995, which are reproduced in the liner, does affect the listening experience. The liner also contains Davies' translation from the French of a poem by François Jacqmin:
One has to give that justice to art,
That it brings proof that nothing functions.
It establishes that there is no use,
Not for the universe,
Not for religion.
It's flagrant uselessness makes one discover that something,
Of which no-one gave much thought,
Suddenly becomes essential.
Why art? From where comes the creative urge? Music, in general, is extremely abstract, and reaches our emotional center through some unknown conduit, sometimes changing our lives forever. Jazz lives on the boundary of art and entertainment, and can exist in each world, performing different functions.
However, improvised creative music that ventures beyond "style," that aims for direct emotional communication from player to listener, can become "Art With No Purpose" other than to exist for the time it is played. Recording the ephemeral almost becomes a sacrilege.
Davies obviously misses the spark, the condensed energy that was Vandercam and wanted, no needed, to connect back to her memory of him, to bring his being into the present if only for a short time.
Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is the result of that need, and it is some of the most heartfelt music you will ever hear. The opening "Prelude" solo piece by Davies introduces a rhythmic figure (tik-tik boom, boom, boom) that kind of pervades the entire work. It has the sound of sadness, longing and loss, but also something of a New Orleans musician's funeral march, which, however, with a subtle change, can swing.
Each subsequent piece, named for the painting which inspired it, is listed on the liner also with a key/tonal area (representing chakras) and words or phrases that represented the emotions surrounding the painting and playing of Vandercam and Davies back in 1995: Life, To Feel; Grounding, To Have; Creation, To Speak; Love, To Love; Power, To Act; Insight, Wisdom, To See; Transcendence, To Know.
All of this might sound heady and somewhat mystical, but, somewhat paradoxically, it is that abstract thing, music, which condenses these emotions, managing to make them concrete. In the end, you will end up somehow knowing Davies and Vandercam (as well as the band members).
Words and music can be like oil and water, so there is nothing else to say but that Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is an experience not to be missed.
Track Listing: Prelude: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon; Hand In Hand (D/D#. Life, To Feel); In The Hand Of The Moon (C/C#. Grounding, To Have); Hand In The Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, Listen To The Bird (G/G#. Creation, To Speak); As She Tells (F/F#. Love, To Love); The Shark In The Hand (E. Power, To Act); Tiburon (A/A#. Insight, Wisdom, To See); The Bridge (B. Transcendence, To Know).
Personnel: Billie Davies: drums; Alex Blaine: tenor sax; Branden Lewis: trumpet, Evan Oberla: trombone; Ed Strohsahl: double bass.
~Budd Kopman, All About Jazz
BILLIE DAVIES '20 Years Stronger'
From Down Beat magazine, the monthly "bible" of jazz, blues, and roots music.
May 2016 issue.
Article written by Jennifer Odell.
Billie Davies, a Belgium-born drummer whose career path has been as avant-garde as her music, had an existential crisis of sorts before she returned to drumming full- time in 2009. She’d been working in Northern California as an art dealer—one of many hats that have ranged from DJ to gypsy musician to information architecture IT specialist—when it occurred to her she wasn’t sure who she was anymore. Distraught, she picked up the phone and called Serge Vandercam (1924–2005), a Danish visual artist with whom she’d bonded, for advice. “I just go, ‘Who am I?’” Davies recalled, her voice cracking as if stuck halfway between the onset of laughter or tears. Vandercam’s reply was terse: “You’re an artist. Get on with it. Stop whining.” She took it in stride. “ That was such a reinforcement for me,” she explained. “And then a full moon ended up coming and he goes, ‘Come on, Billie. I’ll paint; you play the drums.’” Read the entire article online: DownBeat Magazine Digital Publication
JAZZIZ Magazine
Avant-garde drummer Billie Davies’ new album “Hand in Hand In the Hand of the Moon”
By Matt Micucci
Published: December 19, 2015
The first New Orleans album by Billie Davies is a tribute to Danish avant-garde artist Serge Vandercam.
Billie Davies is an American female jazz drummer and composer, born in Bruges, Belgium on December 10, 1955. She is best known for her avant garde and avant-garde jazz compositions, as well as her revered improvisational drumming skills, that especially gained attention from the mid-nineties, after performing around Europe and the US.
She often quotes her mother Simone Clybouw as her biggest influence both on an artistic and personal level. It was her mother that introduced her to jazz, and named her after the great Billie Holiday. She was hence raised listening to the music of Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone among other artists.
It was at around the age of 25 that she started the transition to becoming a professional musician, influenced by such artists as Al Foster, Billy Higgins and Peter Erskine.
Her new album Hand in Hand In the Hand of the Moon, is the first album drummer, composer and bandleader Billie Davies recorded since wrapping up a successful, five-year stay in Los Angeles and heading east to the more exotic environs of New Orleans.It was recorded on one take on an afternoon in April, with Alex Blaine on tenor sax, Branden Lewis on trumpet, Evan Oberla on trombone and Ed Strohsahl on bass.
In this album, Davies homage to Danish-born Belgian artist Serge Vandercam a Danish-born Belgian painter, photographer, sculptor and ceramist associated with the CoBrA group, a European avant-garde movement active from 1948 to 1951, named from the initials of the member’s home cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A).
Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is a musical symphony inspired by Vandercam’s exquisite creations. Davies says it is, “The painter influenced by the drummer and the drummer influenced by the painter over a period of three days of the full moon.” With the album, Davies continues a “collaborative work, conceived in 1995 resulting 20 years later in a series of 8 paintings and a jazz symphony of eight musical movements.”
Matt Micucci, JAZZIZ Magazine, Léan Crowley News
OffBEAT Magazine
Billie Davies, Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon
By Noé Cugny
Published: October 28, 2015
Avant-garde music really finds its beauty in the way it rids musical expression of a number of conceptual restraints, leaving the core of the artist’s emotion to be exposed bare.
This kind of intimate connection with the listener is what drummer Billie Davies offers in her release Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moon. The album, a symphony in eight movements dedicated to Belgian painter Serge Vandercam, was recorded in one take, with each movement inspired by a different painting by Vandercam.
Davies invites musicians to converse freely around pieces of visual art created in a session she spent with Vandercam in 1995. That type of experimentation in music allows her to draw connections between different individuals and their ideas, through different art forms, and across different timeframes.
Though the instrumentation remains within the established norms of the jazz quintet, the absence of piano challenges the horns to build a melodic and rhythmic rapport among themselves and with Davies’ lead drumming, rather than relying on set harmonies or chord structure.
The bare and vivid expression that results from this combination of ideas—on how to create music—shows a certain degree of sincerity and openness that remains present throughout this concept album.
Noé Cugny, OffBEAT Magazine
All About Jazz
Billie Davies: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon (2015)
By Roger Farbey
Published: October 28, 2015
Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is a heartfelt homage to the artist Serge Vandercam (1924-2005) whose paintings, depicted on the inside CD cover, originally inspired this suite of collaborative improvisations. Initially the inspiration drew from a period of three days of the full moon in 1995 when the artist was influenced by the drummer's playing. For this recording in 2015, following a 20 year gestation period, the painting corresponding to each title was hanging on a wall clearly visible to the musicians. Davies herself painted the album's cover art in 1996 plus the "prelude" painting depicted inside the CD cover.
"Prelude: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" constitutes a lengthy, explorative drum solo, from Billie Davies which includes a repeated bass drum phrase sounding much like "bada boom boom boom." The brass enters quietly on "Hand In Hand," introducing a brief melody led by Branden Lewis on trumpet, followed by Evan Oberla on trombone and Alex Blaine on tenor sax. The thoughtful, collective improvisation continues with "In The Hand Of The Moon" starting quietly but progressing to a more confidently raucous level, all the while the drums propelling the music along.
"Hand In The Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, Listen To The Bird" begins with mellifluous trumpet, joined soon after by the other members of the band, the improvisation breaking out into bluesy free- bop backed by intermittent walking bass lines from Ed Strohsahl.
More bluesy muted trumpet on "As She Tells" is countered by trombone and sax, whereas "The Shark In The Hand" begins to emulate an Albert Ayler-like feel. "Tiburon" starts slowly, again with bluesy brass and walking bass that suddenly pitches into an accelerando half way through. The final track, "The Bridge" is a sombre exercise in light and shade.
Although a one take "live" recording which took place in New Orleans on April 24, 2015, the resulting tracks are of excellent studio quality. This entirely improvised, yet painstakingly cerebral session yields some near telepathic ensemble playing, and maintains the listener's attention, not least on account of Davies' deft and sensitively imaginative percussive technique.
Track Listing: Prelude: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon; Hand In Hand; In The Hand Of The Moon; Hand In The Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, Listen To The Bird; As She Tells; The Shark In The Hand; Tiburon; The Bridge.
Personnel: Billie Davies: drums; Alex Blaine: tenor sax; Branden Lewis: trumpet, Evan Oberla: trombone; Ed Strohsahl: double bass.
Record Label: Cobra Basement
Style: Beyond Jazz
Roger Farbey, All About Jazz
MIDWEST RECORD
COBRA BASEMENT
BILLIE DAVIES/Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moo
By Chris Spector
Published: October 24, 2015
Nawlins fave progressive jazz drumming woman gets inspired by the paintings of a Belgian artist and records during the full moon. It doesn't say it was paid for by an arts council so even if this minimalist outing isn't your cup of tea, give her the proper props for sticking to her guns and shepherding her vision as per her integrity and calibrations.
Chris Spector, Midwest Record
JAZZ'HALO
Billie Davies - Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon
by Claude Loxhay - Belgium
Published: October , 2015
The Original Article appeared first in Jazz'Halo in the French language.
Translation from French to English:
After touring Europe with her drums, Billie Goegebeur, a native of Bruges, moved to the United States in 1987 and took the name of Billie Davies. While crossing Leroy Vinegar (b), John Handy (s) and a number of musicians from New Orleans, she maintained ties with Belgium, especially with the painter Serge Vandercam. Born in 1924, Serge Vandercam joined the COBRA group in 1949 at the initiative of Christian Dotremont. Photographer and painter attracted by the abstract and the spontaneity of gesture, he has notably expressed his "latent anxiety" through "word-paintings" and by the obsessive motif of the bird. In 1995, Serge Vandercam and Billie Davies meet: one paints, one improvises on drums. Thus was born, during the three days of the full moon, "a symphony inspired by the paintings of Serge Vandercam and the drums of Billie Davies": "a collaborative work", rich of seven canvases by Vandercam, the "paint-words" with bird motif and and one by Billie Davies, all reproduced in the booklet. But, beyond, will be born, 20 years later, the desire to create a true orchestral suite dedicated to the three days of communion during the full moon: "Hand in hand in the hand of the moon", "this music has been inspired by these paintings, a symphony to you and to Thalia "(text of the booklet). For this project, Billie turned to friends in New Orleans: tenor saxophonist Alex Blaine who worked with Dr. John, the pianist, and with the singer Allen Toussaint, trumpeter Branden Lewis, trombonist Evan Oberla, leader of the quintet RFG that recorded the album "May your Vice be Nice" and bassist Ed Strohsahl. After a prelude of 7 minutes 26 dedicated to the drums alone, seven movements follow smoothly inspired by the paintings of Serge Vandercam: Hand in hand, In the hand of the moon, Listen to the bird, As she tells, The shark in the hand, Tiburon and The Bridge. Seven beaches which leave a wide place to improvisation in the exchanges between the three blowers: dialogue between trumpet and trombone on tenor saxophone background (Hand in hand), bass intro followed by a tenor-trumpet interchange (In the hand of the moon), trumpet solo on tenor-trombone background (Listen to the bird) or angry tenor on (The shark in the hand). A music willingly tormented by the imagery of the paintings by Vandercam to conclude on a more calming sequence (The bridge). The opportunity to discover a musician that is little-known in Belgium ("no one is a prophet in his own country") and to discuss the news of the New Orleans scene, far from the clichés for tourists.
Original article:
Après avoir sillonné l'Europe avec sa batterie, Billie Goegebeur, native de Bruges, s'est installée aux Etats-Unis en 1987 et a pris le nom de Billie Davies. Tout en croisant Leroy Vinegar (cb), John Handy (as) et nombre de musiciens de La Nouvelle-Orléans, elle a gardé des liens avec la Belgique, notamment avec le peintre Serge Vandercam. Né en 1924, Serge Vandercam a rejoint le groupe COBRA en 1949, à l'initiative de Christian Dotremont. Photographe et peintre attiré par l'abstraction et la spontanéité du geste, il a notamment exprimé son "angoisse latente" au travers de "peintures-mots" et du motif obsessionnel de l'oiseau. En 1995, Serge Vandercam et Billie Davies se rencontrent: l'un peint, l'autre improvise à la batterie. Ainsi naît, durant les trois jours de la pleine lune, "une symphonie inspirée par les peintures de Serge Vandercam et la batterie de Billie Davies": "a collaborative work", riche de sept toiles de Vandercam, des "peintures-mots" avec motif d'oiseau et une de Billie Davies, toutes reproduites dans le livret. Mais, par-delà, va naître, 20 ans plus tard, l'envie de créer une véritable suite orchestrale dédiée à ces trois jours de communion durant la pleine lune: "Hand in hand in the hand of the moon", "this music has been inspired by these paintings, a symphony to you and to Thalia" (texte du livret). Pour ce projet, Billie a fait appel à des amis de La Nouvelle-Orléans: le saxophoniste ténor Alex Blaine qui a côtoyé Dr John, comme le pianiste, et chanteur Allen Toussaint, le trompettiste Branden Lewis, le tromboniste Evan Oberla, leader du quintet RFG qui a enregistré l'album "May your Vice be Nice" et le contrebassiste Ed Strohsahl. Après un Prélude de 7 minutes 26 dédié à la seule batterie, s'enchaînent sept séquences inspirées par les toiles de Serge Vandercam: Hand in hand, In the hand of the moon, Listen to the bird, As she tells, The shark in the hand, Tiburon et The bridge. Sept plages qui laissent une large place à l'improvisation dans les échanges entre les trois souffleurs: dialogue entre trompette et trombone sur fond de saxophone ténor (Hand in hand), intro de contrebasse suivie d'un échange ténor-trompette (In the hand of the moon), solo de trompette sur fond de ténor-trombone (Listen to the bird) ou ténor rageur sur (The shark in the hand). Une musique volontiers tourmentée à l'image des toiles de Vandercam pour se clore sur une séquence davantage apaisée (The bridge). L'occasion de découvrir une musicienne méconnue en Belgique ("nul n'est prophète en son pays") et d'aborder l'actualité de la scène new-orléanaise, loin des clichés pour touristes.
Claude Loxhay, JAZZ'HALO
his VOICE
BILLIE DAVIES - Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon
by Jan Hocek, Prague, Czech Republic.
Published: October 12, 2015
The Original Article appeared first in his VOICE in the Czech language.
It has been almost two years since I was here reviewing an album of avant-garde jazz drummer Billie Davies, which she recorded with her trio. The news comes this time with a larger line-up and without a guitar, but with a brass section, a new release on their own label, Cobra Basement, released on Oct. 1 2015, with the zappovsky sounding name "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon"...
Originally from Belgium (b. In Bruges as Billie Goegebeur), she will celebrate her sixtieth birthday on December 10, she lived since the early nineties in California (since 2009 in Los Angeles) and received one of the prestigious awards there, the LA Music Awards (category Jazz Artist of the Year 2013). In the spring of last year she moved into the cradle of jazz, south to New Orleans, where she is surrounded by its instrumentalists. And this is of course is reflected in the new album, which she recorded with the five- member line-up in one go, basically live, on April 24 in New Orleans in one of the small studios that are practically in every street, along with her there shining tenor saxophonist Alex Blaine, trumpeter Branden Lewis, trombonist Evan Oberla and bassist Ed Strohsahl.
The project, however, was born in 1995 when the Danish-Belgian painter Serge Vandercam visited Billie's house in Tiburon, California. After a sleepless night, they decided to try to inspire each other; he would paint, and she would play the drums. Billie says: It was the full moon, a nightingale sang constantly behind the house, it was a magical moment... so the work ended up lasting three days and completed eight works which 20 years later became the basis for the eight parts of the symphony in honor of the painter, called "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" after one of the paintings. Vandercam (b. 1924 in Copenhagen) unfortunately, died in 2005 in Wavre, Belgium, so Billie felt obliged to create a jazz symphony that demonstrates the power of artistic integrity, spiritualism, creative passion, the original expression, intuition, instinct, direct dialogue victorious over technique.
The Prelude for the almost sixty minute long symphony is precisely the eponymous title track, in the form of a solo piece for percussion instruments. Lasting more than seven minutes Billie Davies actually builds the composition from which hatch the melodic pieces that work with the dynamics and structure. Her drums spill over into the first movement, which is called "Hand In Hand". Eventually, gradually involving other instruments, everything evokes the atmosphere of free-jazz of the early 60s. However the drums remain crucial. It can be said that the drummer is a painter and the others her palette.
The second movement, "In The Hand Of The Moon", starts with a bass ostinata, a repeating melodic or rhythmic motif or phrase, surrounded by a tympanic rumble into which there are gusts of breath cutting in. Everything is poured into a meditative flow, which very often thickens human breath, and above the rhythmic waves, in counterpoint melody, we hear tenor and pipes. Towards the end of the second movement the quintet will develop into a more direct form of a hard-bop nature.
The third movement, "Hand In The Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, Listen To The Bird", is an artfully exposed eight minute composition with a lyrically melodious introduction, with distinctive motifs of dense swinging rhythm and with a cool jumble of short solo chorus of brass, the rhythm creates a really sparkly living organism into which enter gospel echoes, blues and country micro- motifs, converging into a sublimely melodic finale.
The fourth movement, "As She Tells", is saturated with free-jazz leadership and a swirling rhythmic foundation, where sometimes we believe to hear some familiar motif from the history of jazz (Miller, Ellington etc.) and where the wind instruments can be extremely sensitive and touching.
The fifth movement, "The Shark In The Hand", starts with giving you a bloodcurling chill to keep you captivated and later develops in a pronounced swing tune of a New Orleans aroma and flavor, and rising from that appears the sixth movement, of a clearer structured matter, "Tiburon". The rhythm here swings like hell and drives everything in front of her, including the dialogues and trialogues of the wind instruments. It's all like an extra sunny, California city.
The final part, the seventh movement called "The Bridge" is the longest composition of the album (9:08). At first a rousing hymn flow with somewhat nervous rhythms, gradually intensifying into a greatly thickened stream, and then disintegrates into a picturesque landscape of music ...
Original article:
Jsou to skoro dva roky, co jsem tady recenzoval album, jež se svým triem natočila avantgardní jazzová bubenice Billie Davies. Na vlastním labelu Cobra Basement vydala 1. října novinku se zappovsky znějícím názvem Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon; tentokrát v rozšířené sestavě a bez kytary, zato s dechovou sekcí...
Původem Belgičanka (nar. v Bruggách jako Billie Goegebeur), jež 10. prosince oslaví šedesátiny, žije od devadesátých let v Kalifornii (od roku 2009 v Los Angeles) a obdržela zde jednu z prestižních cen, LA Music Awards (v kategorii Jazzový umělec roku 2013). Na konci loňského roku se přestěhovala do kolébky jazzu, na jih do New Orleans, kde se obklopila tamními instrumentalisty. A to se pochopitelně promítlo do nového alba, jež natočila v pětičlenném obsazení na jeden zátah, v podstatě naživo, 24. dubna v jednom z malých neworleanských studií, které jsou prakticky v každé ulici. Spolu s ní se zde zaskvěli tenorsaxofonista Alex Blaine, trumpetista Branden Lewis, trombonista Evan Oberla a kontrabasista Ed Strohsahl.
Projekt se ale zrodil již v roce 1995, kdy Billie navštívil v jejím domě v kalifornském Tiburonu dánsko-belgický malíř Serge Vandercam. Po jedné probdělé noci se rozhodli, že se navzájem zkusí inspirovat; on bude malovat a ona hrát na bicí. Billie dodává: Bylo to po úplňku, slavík za domem neustále zpíval, byl to magický okamžik...Vydrželi takto pracovat tři dny a dokončili osm děl, které se 20 let poté staly základem pro osm částí symfonie k poctě malíři, nazvané Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon podle jednoho z malířových obrazů. Wandercam (nar. 1924 v Kodani) bohužel v roce 2005 v belgickém Wavre zemřel. Billie se tak cítila povinnována vytvořit jazzovou symfonii, jež dokazuje sílu umělecké integrity, spiritualismu, tvůrčí vášně, originálního vyjadřování, intuice, instinktu, vítězství bezprostředního dialogu nad taktikou...
Předehrou (Prelude) bezmála šedesát minut trvající symfonie je právě skladba titulního názvu, a to v podobě sólového kusu pro bicí nástroje. Na ploše více než sedmi minut Billie Davies skutečně buduje kompozici, z níž se vylupují melodické střípky, pracuje s dynamikou i strukturou. Její bicí se přelijí do prvního movementu, jenž se jmenuje Hand In Hand. Posléze se postupně zapojí ostatní nástroje, vše evokuje atmosféru free-jazzu raných 60. let. Ovšem bicí zůstávají stěžejní; dá se říci, že bubenice je malíř a ti ostatní jeho paletou. Druhý movement In The Hand Of The Moon uvozují ostinata kontrabasu a tympánová dunění, do nichž se zařízne poryv dechů. Vše se přeleje do meditativního toku, který zahušťuje často samotný lidský dech a nad rytmickými vlnami se vinou v kontrapunktu melodie tenora a trubky. Ke konci se kvintet rozvine do přímočarejšího útvaru hard-bopového charakteru. Třetí movement Hand In The Hand In The hand Of The Moon, Listen To The Bird představuje umně vystavěnou osmiminutovou kompozici s lyricky zpěvným úvodem, s výraznými motivy nad hutným swingujícím rytmem s hustým propletencem krátkých sólových chorusů dechových nástrojů; rytmika vvytváří vskutku jiskřivě živoucí organismus, do něhož vstupují ozvěny gospelových, bluesových a countryových mikromotivů, slévajích se do hymnického finále. Čtvrtý movement As She Tells je sycena free- jazzovým vedením všech hlasů a zvířeným rytmickým podložím, kdy se občas vyloupne nějaký známý motiv z historie jazzu (Miller, Ellington atd.) a dechy dokáží souznět nesmírně citlivě a jímavě. Pátý movement The Shark In The Hand se přes vás hrůzostrašně převalí, až vás to zmrazí, aby vás posléze uchvátila výrazná, swingově laděná melodie neworleánské vůně a chuti, vzlínající z přehledněji strukturované matérie šestého movementu Tiburon. Rytmika tady swinguje jako o život a vše žene před sebou, včetně dialogů a trialogů dechových nástrojů. Celé je to navíc prosluněné jako ono kalifornské město. Závěrečná část, sedmý movement nazvaný The Bridge, je nejdelší kompozicí alba (9:08). Zprvu vzletný, hymnický tok, ale s poněkud nervní rytmikou, zesílí postupně v notně zahuštěný proud, jenž posléze rozvolní, aby se proměnil v malebnou hudební krajinu...
Jan Hocek, his VOICE
SOMETHING ELSE!
Billie Davies – Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon (2015)
By S Victor Aaron
Published: October 9, 2015
Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is the first album drummer, composer and bandleader Billie Davies recorded since wrapping up a successful, five-year stay in Los Angeles and heading east to the more exotic environs of New Orleans. The Old World charm-meets-New World adventurism of the Crescent City suits the Belgium-born and raised Davies, and the mere change of location added a new wrinkle in her music.
Davies’ brand of jazz remains the bedrock of her music: she strips the music down its foundation and builds it back up with free but purposeful movement. Further, she’s at her best when she is creating live and on the spot. For Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, her first record of her New Orleans era, Davies brings those attributes with her and she gets a taste of Nola in return with a new band she filled with locals: Alex Blaine on tenor sax, Branden Lewis on trumpet, Evan Oberla on trombone and Ed Strohsahl on acoustic bass.
The material goes back twenty years earlier, when Davies was still in Belgium. She conceived a series of pieces that in turn inspired a set of paintings by the late Belgian visual artist Serge Vandercam (you can view the paintings here). Had Vandercam heard the songs played with this expressive, sometimes festive, horn section, he might have produced different paintings. Though they don’t do any Dixieland or funeral parades, the spirit of the city’s rich cultural heritage manages to influence these sessions, as in “In The Hand Of The Moon,” where Lewis’ trumpet set the passionate tone by leaves aching remarks. All three get dirge-y in a very expressive and free way during the time Davies and Strohsahl keep the proceedings rooted and provide general direction.
During “The Bridge” and in other instances, three-way improv breaks out, suggesting trad jazz but without a road map. Typically, band members will take turns introducing opening remarks, and the rest of the ensemble build from that. “Tiburon,” for example, begins with a trumpet figure, join by Oberla’s countervailing harmonic part on trombone, and Blaine’s sax tosses in an ‘amen’ at the end of each bar. As the three begin to simmer together for some uncharted fun, Davies unexpectedly breaks out a swing rhythm and the band is firing on all five cylinders.
A good way to gauge Davis’ drumming in isolation is through the solo drum performance “prelude. Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon.” She demonstrates a mastery of drums that goes well beyond technique; she is able to tell a story with it. And when the music moves from this track to the next with the full band involved, she doesn’t change her drumming style because her approach is so adaptive and pliable. Adapting to new environs is what Gypsies do well after all, and Billie Davies’ latest stop in her musical journey is a fruitful pairing of what she brought into town with what the town brought to her.
S Victor Aaron, Something Else!
his VOICE
BILLIE DAVIES - 12 VOLT : HIGH VOLTAGE avant-garde JAZZ
by Jan Hocek
December 5, 2013
She was born in Bruges, Belgium , eccentric , avant-garde jazz drummer - self-taught , relentless and explosive style of playing, jazz innovator , living in Los Angeles since 2009 only, she is this year's winner of the prestigious LA Music Awards in the category "Jazz Artist of the Year 2013" - BILLIE DAVIES ! This award helped her to the greatest degree with her last ( the fourth one ) album " 12 VOLT ," which was released on their own label Cobra Basement.
Billie Davies came to the United States when she was 32. Before that, from the age of 19, she was playing avant-garde jazz and free improvisation throughout Europe, especially France, Spain and the Mediterranean. She learned from recordings that included drummers such as Al Foster, Billy Higgins, Billy Cobham, Peter Erskine, Billy Hart and Jack DeJohnette. In doing so she got herself sucked into the various ethnic influences, particularly Roma music. Revelation for her was meeting with legendary guitarist Ricardo Baliardem, but known by his stage name Manitas De Plata, as well as with bluesman Claude Mazet - both guitarists also respected the traditional rhythmic rules. Even with the Roma, she lived several years in their way of life, which her bohemian temper satisfied so that at twenty-five she refused the offer of the legendary drummer Max Roach to study at Berklee College Of Music in Boston, after he heard her play in Montpellier on the street. "All the performances ran on twelve volts , such sound was enough for us " says Billie Davies. "That's why my album is titled 12 Volt. The music is inspired by memories of that period of my life when I lived so close to nature and wonderful people, natural people. The music is dedicated to all the Roma in Europe, those most amazing musicians I've ever met. I love them."
Album " 12 Volt " is ranked in the American media in category "beyond jazz" . The rave reviews are teeming with intellectual phraseology such as "organic essence of improvisational music", "musical minimalism", "the perfect marriage of simplicity and complexity". With that, there is nothing but to agree, but what do they mean by we imagine? To quote once more alone Billie Davies: "The foundation of my music is improvisation course. For me it is a conversation between musicians and musical instruments, and common emotional expression based on certain common feelings, thoughts, communicated to the audience, the listener, a community of people. Looking for new observations, new rhythms, trying to find a new, expressive and yet humanistic jazz, avant-garde jazz, yet full of joy, simply avant-garde as such." Something similar was already attempted in 1960 by saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre with his trio - the concept of free - jazz by three independent instruments and creating a new kind of sound, three-dimensional jazz music reminds Billie Davies on the album "12 Volt" the most. It goes even further - in her trio the saxophone is, of course, replaced by a guitar, it's not about the number of gypsy guitarists, but it is not as rich as the expressive saxophone, bass, and so she mainly with drums must extend the expressive means, which are, compared with harmonic instruments, obviously limited. But fortunately only seemingly. Davies brings to his game a fantastic plasticity to, stress and anxiety, and a unique use of cymbals and densely interwoven polyrhythms. Bassist Adam Levy, American, he studied double bass at the University of South Florida, at 21, he moved to New York and since 2004 lives in Los Angeles. His game is very emotional , sound unusual , sometimes brutal , especially when the loop. In creating bass lines may resemble Ron Carter. Guitarist Daniel Coffeng comes from Amsterdam, in his play, based on the be- bop and Django Reinhardt , but since imbibed by strenuous study also blues, reggae, rock, soul and the traditional play of the Indian sitar, Japanese koto, African coru and other folk string instruments from around the world, is his conception of a lot of avant-garde jazz.
Album of the total length of 59 minutes copyright includes eight compositions composed by Billie Davies. Only one, "Tango for Patti", has the drum solo as such, i.e. isolated! In every song you are listening to is a web of fabric and layering three continuously playing solo musicians who are not congenial to ingeniously combine in one single creative organism and inexhaustible reservoir of novel musical ideas. Some songs are more avant- garde conceived ( for example, just opening "Collioure" ), some less ( "Grapes, Plums and Tomatoes", "12 Volt" ) , others are more conclusive emphasis on Spanish melody and color ( "Meeting Manitas ", "Gypsy" , "La Sieste" ) and "Les Landes" is appealing to the chanson. However, even for one second, you do not feel boredom or a whiff of cheapness or creative pander .
Without hesitation - one of the most remarkable trio albums of the year! ~Jan Hocek, his VOICE.
Billie Davies: 12 Volt (2013)
By C. MICHAEL BAILEY
Published: November 22, 2013
Billie Davies: 12 Volt Drummer Billie Davies' previous recording, All About Love (Self Produced, 2012) was novel and compelling, a trombone trio with the drummer lead. Davies assembled original and standard works, achieving both educational and artistic endpoints. The present recording, 12 Volt, retains the trio format, substituting the guitar for the trombone and pushes the trio envelope out with a moody collection of eight originals, when considered together comprise an avant-garde suite possibly conceived by Grant Green and John Coltrane.
This music is most comparable to Jimmy Giuffre's 1960s trios exploring free jazz using three independent instruments probing jazz's three-dimensional space. Davies directs a very similar interrogation of spatial sound dependence and independent of time. "Collioure" is based on a descending chordal guitar figure, simple and unadorned with brief drum and arco bass support. Guitarist Daniel Coffeng sparsely solos, extending the opening theme. The title piece is a rolicking jam with all instruments hitting their mark. Davies carefully cultivates her cymbals while bassist Adam Levy provides the harmonic roadmap and time over which Coffeng solos most robustly.
"Les Landes" is a good representation of the disc as a whole, an anxious piece with many corners and edges to navigate. Davie's challenge to her bandmates is to glide as smoothly as possible about these corners while she stirs the water with her persistent and restless drumming. The mood is dreamy and slightly soporous, a child of Morpheus and honey, preparing a bed of experiences for the listener.
Track Listing: Collioure; Meeting Manitas; 12 Volt; Les Landes; Tango for Patti; Grapes, Plums and Tomatoes; Gypsy; La Sieste.
Personnel: Billie Davies: drums; Daniel Coffeng: guitar; Adam Levy: bass.
Record Label: Cobra Basement
Style: Beyond Jazz
All About Jazz
Billie Davies: 12 Volt (2013) By HRAYR ATTARIAN, Published: October 29, 2013
Belgium native and Los Angeles based drummer Billie Davies continues to forge her own path in the improvised music world. Endowed with an explorative temperament and unique, yet definite swing sense, Davies pays homage to Gypsy musicians on her fourth release as a leader, 12 Volt.
Just to be clear, this is not an album reinterpreting guitarist Django Reinhardt's tunes or anyone else's for that matter. It is a cohesive work of bold innovation and free flowing spontaneity in tribute to the unfettered spirit of those individuals. The title track, for instance, opens with Davies' thundering cascade of beats that fall like refreshing rain over guitarist Daniel Coffeng's earthy, slow simmering, chords. Her restless polyrhythms, tempered by the intricately textured, sublime timbres drive Coffeng's electrifying, fiery improvisation along bassist Adam Levy's densely woven rhythmic trails.
One of the thematic threads of the disc is a superb balance of cerebral creativity and a raw, visceral fervor. The passionate "Tango for Patti" is a dramatic piece filled with thrilling harmonic structures and a subtle and effusive assonance. Coffeng's crisp guitar's logical progression echoes over Davies' ardent, sensual rumble and Levy's delightfully angular, percussive bass lines.
The intelligent, spur of the moment extemporizations maintain throughout a definite melodicism. The bluesy "Gypsy" features Coffeng's soulful and mellifluous strings against Levy's agile walking bass and Davies' rocking drums in an enchanting and though provoking three-way dance. The closer, "La Sieste," meanwhile, is an ethereal and fantastical composition with gorgeously elegiac tones. Davies' dexterous alternation of whispering brushes and tapping sticks, peppered with silent pauses, creates a hypnotic ambience filled with Coffeng's quietly poetic phrasing.
As evidenced on this uniformly intriguing disc Davies thrives in the sparse, collaborative setting of the trio. Throughout her recorded legacy, her partners have changed but her artistic imagination and her inspired ingenuity have solidified and matured. The result is a stimulating, original and singularly satisfying oeuvre that, hopefully, will continue to expand and evolve.
Track Listing: Collioure; Meeting Manitas; 12 Volt; Les Landes; Tango for Patti; Grapes, Plums and Tomatoes; Gypsy; La Sieste.
Personnel: Billie Davies: drums; Daniel Coffeng: guitar; Adam Levy: bass.
Record Label: Cobra Basement
Style: Beyond Jazz
JAZZ MUSIC
Billie Davies: 12 VOLT
Year: 2013
On the first anniversary of her last CD release: The Billie Davies Trio - All About Love (Cobra Basement: 2012), 'lifelong natural musician' drummer Billie Davies has released another unimpeachable work: BILLIE DAVIES - 12 VOLT. Whereas, All About Love featured some of the music of venerated composers, including Victor Young, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Mongo Santamaria, 12 VOLT features exclusively original compositions of Billie Davies, revealing yet another formidable creative talent in Davies' impressive artistic arsenal; making this an important CD for Davies, since it adds the crucial tyne of 'composer/arranger' to her sterling artistic fork, augmenting fearless innovation, and superlative drumming technique.
For 12 VOLT, Davies employs again the trio setting, but with a significant change in players. On All About Love, Tom Bone Ralls appeared on trombone, and Oliver Steinberg played bass. Now guitarist Daniel Coffeng supplants Bone Ralls, and bassist Adam Levy takes the place of Steinberg. Davies describes 12 VOLT as an ode to Manitas De Plata, the renowned French-born gypsy guitar master, Django Reinhardt, considered the king of gypsy guitarists., and "all Gypsies, Tsiganes, Manouche and Bohemians all over the world," sure to stir wide appeal, and escalating excitement among her expanding music public.
In 12 VOLT, Davies' trio presents a collection of musical images of the world of the Gypsy in portraits of untouched natural beauty, as well as its untouchable rugged other side, seen in the fierce pride and passion of a forgotten, invisible people, and their way of living; heard in the inspiring Gypsy Flamenco music; felt in the fiery guitar, the dancers' movements and expressions; a mountain of vital culture that demands an odyssey to experience; and Davies went, with her 12- VOLT 'Band on the Run"; no APBs, like the McCartney & Wings 1973 model, but free-spirited bohemians that "... went everywhere the wind was blowing..." (Davies), like (Collioure) with its bewitching European artists' light captured in uncomplicated droplets of color from Daniel Coppeng's guitar, and the easy- listening resonance of Davies' polyrhythmic exchanges.
Davies' other signature contribution to the date, beyond drumming ability, and creative energy, is a remarkable facility to remain unhurried, not irrationally exuberant, but attentive to pristine artistic environments, so as not to provoke uneven corruption or distracting, grainy, biases in the fine textures, natural colors, and flowing sequences of sights and sounds she sees, hears and plays back with impeccable sonic balance, and an almost reverential cadence (Meeting Manitas).
Davies' selection of guitarist Daniel Coffeng, and bassist Adam Levy for this project is noteworthy in its astuteness. Coffeng brings extraordinary facility for transition and energetic flow to avant jazz improvisation (12 Volt) with an extended, progressive, detailed solo, alternating between jazz and rock, but always clear and precise, like the sounds of crickets at night time. Coffeng's musical experience is deeply rooted in music cultures which reach into jazz, blues, soul, reggae, through to classical, rock, Eastern music, Latin American and West African music. Adam Levy is a well prepared and accomplished upright bass player. His mom was "feeding him boogie woogie piano in their home at a very early age." He gets tons of experience from his brother, Mike, who Levy says is a prodigy on bass. Levy pursued a Jazz degree at the University of South Florida where he studied upright bass. He puts his bona fides in play with a superbly conversant passage depicting peacefulness and harmony, never bitter, (Grapes, Plums and Tomatoes) during exchanges with Davies' expressive drums, and Coffeng's descriptive guitar; reviving the intimate stories of Gypsies toiling in the fields; their loves, lives, prides and passions, against the unending rhythmic drumbeat of moving hands and feet.
These two talented players bring to the date, a collective of experience that compliments, and fuels Davies' dauntless search for fertile creative ground to express the varied, but complex experiences unique to her posit as the cutting-edge artist in Neo-Humanistic Expressionist Jazz (Les Landes; Tango for Patti). But Gypsies can swing too (Gypsy), because Django, "The King" taught them how. They listened, and never forgot. Now sadness, anger, and disappointment are anathema to them: Davies' vivid drumming, Coffeng's uplifting guitar, and Levy's unassailable bass notes, all say so in their precise rhythmic footprints that revisit musical paths Davies traveled while living, and loving the gypsy life all over the South of Europe; footprints now leading toward exciting, unexplored, far-reaching musical frontier space for her muse to continue that restless, relentless quest to create and give musical ears and voice to what is not there...yet!
~CJ Bond, JAZZ MUSIC
SOMETHING ELSE!
Billie Davies – 12 VOLT (2013)
The 23rd Annual L.A. Music Awards has recently nominated drummer and bandleader Davies as “Jazz Artist of the Year” for 2013, a mere four years after she set up shop in Los Angeles and made it her home. But this bohemian from Belgium has quickly made positive impressions everywhere she goes, including this reviewer when sizing up her third album all about Love a year ago. For album #4 12 Volt, Davies assembled a new trio to go along with her new songs, in which she constructed around a concept of simplicity and being closer to nature. In this case, being closer to nature meant deconstructing jazz to its base components. The liner notes for Billie Davies’ upcoming album went into the detail of what makes the jazz of this drummer stand out from the herd, but one sentence seemed to sum it up nicely: “Davies is not countering the modern jazz movement so much but rather stripping it down to its essence.”
Moving on from the trumpet/bass/drums configuration of Love, Davies enlisted Amsterdam guitarist Daniel Coffeng and acoustic bassist Adam Levy to make this album live in the studio in a single day. That’s an approach that has fostered simplicity and natural playing. The airy, free flowing way these songs are played are like that, too. Take the opening cut, “Collioure,” an esoteric melody that moves at a naturally occurring cadence. Davis is making melody right alongside Coffeng, and Levy’s arco bass provides a well-defined harmonic counterpoint. The second part of song descends and ascends, Davies soloing while closely following Coffeng’s moves. With such attention to timbre, space and mood, it’s easy to forget that much of the music here and on the rest of the album is dissonant, because it’s avant-garde in a very embraceable way.
When listening to Davies play, it’s easier to think of her not as a drummer but a tonal painter who swipes brushstrokes with her drumsticks. “Collioure” is a prime example, and also in her subtly guiding ever so incremental changes in intonation on songs such as “Tango for Patti” as well as confidently leading the group through a deconstructed section within “Les Landes.” On angular blues such as “!2 Volt” and “Grapes, Plums and Tomatoes” she swings authoritatively without ever having to resort to brute force.
Coffeng employs the pillowy, sweet tones of Jim Hall, and he demonstrates nifty single note run skills during a solo on “Gypsy.” But his economy of notes is perhaps his greatest asset for this session; it fits in fine with the “less is more” mantra Davies champions and allows her and Levy to be heard as equals. The songs generally follow the head- solos-head format, but the extended solo sections are allowed so much freedom, whole other songs are nearly created between the heads; the group members typically improvise as a unit.
It’s some honor for Billie Davies to be considered for the top jazz musician award in a big musical and cultural center such as Los Angeles, but that the institution pays close attention to the likes of her speaks well for their recognition of outlier talent. And 12 Volt can’t help but to strengthen Davies’ chances for winning it.
12 Volt is due out later this week on CDBaby.
~S Victor Aaron, Something Else!
BOP-N-JAZZ
Billie Davies 12 VOLT 2013
The organic essence of improvisational music. The evocative manipulation of sound and silence into a living breathing microcosm of emotion and spontaneous creativity.
Brent Black / www.bop-n-jazz.com
Melodic minimalism...12 Volt is improvisational music stripped down to a bare bones approach of lyrical passion and purpose. Billie Davies is more than a drummer as she possesses compositional skills that have 12 Volt as engaging as perhaps any trio based ensemble working today. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of 12 Volt is that it is a live studio recording. Live studio recordings can be magic or they can be a train wreck.
Strictly as an instrumentalist Billie Davies is one of the more lyrically based drummers in the style of a Max Roach and her work is quickly gaining attention as she was nominated as "Jazz Artist" of the year 2013 by the 23rd annual L.A. Music Awards...The other ensemble members include guitarist Daniel Coffeng and bassist Adam Levy and the collective synergy here is an open ended warmth that seems to radiate from whatever devise you may be using to enjoy this stellar recording. There is a haunting zen like quality here, no notes are wasted while the expressionistic quality embraces a Bohemian like vibe more closely with improvisational music recorded some fifty years previous. This is a conceptual recording. The stroke of genius here is that the concept is that of abstract nothingness. Musical methodology that is strictly in the moment. Creativity that is unbridled, unchecked and not bound by preconceived notions of what something "should" sound like. Artistic comparisons are inherently unfair. Billie Davies compositions sound like Billie Davies. Daniel Coffeng is an incredibly engaging guitarist in the tradition of perhaps a John Abercrombie. Bassist Adam Levy is the soul pumpkin laying down a bass line reminiscent of a Ron Carter. All three artists are uniquely different but the harmonic exploratory conceived here is performed with a deceptively subtle uniformity while remaining abstract enough to attack the listener on a cerebral front. The perfect marriage of simplicity and complexity.
5 star review
~Brent Black, Bop-N-Jazz
O's PLACE JAZZ MAGAZINE Billie Davies - All About Love O's Notes: Billie Davies plays drums and leads a trio with trombonist Tom Bone Ralls and bassist Oliver Steinberg. The absence of keyboards or guitar leaves a lot of space to enjoy the full tones of these lower register instruments, a rather unique approach. The trio wrote three of the selections plus one from Ralls to go along with six freshly arranged standards. We liked the second rendition of "Afro Blue" best of all. ~D. Oscar Groomes, O's Place Jazz Magazine.
JAZZ PROSPECTING The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love (2012, Cobra Basement): Drummer, website describes her as "post cool jazz & avant garde drummer" — could parse that two ways, with a disconnect either way. Album, her first as far as I can tell, is a trio with trombone (Tom Bone Ralls) and bass (Oliver Steinberg). Tuneful — well, anything with "Afro Blue" is that and this has two takes — shifted into a lower register, a nice effect, more cool than avant. B+ (**) = 4.5 Stars The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love (2012, Cobra Basement): In my review of the drummer's debut record, I referred to "him" and "his" when I should have written "her." Not sure how I got confused about that. B+(**) ~Tom Hull, Jazz Prospecting.
JAZZ MUSIC The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love. Jazz combos without chordal accompaniment (pianoless) are rareties these days- if they exist at all. Gerry Mulligan's 1950 quartet, with trumpeter Chet Baker, bassist Bob Whitlock, and drummer Chico Hamilton; along with The Sonny Rollins Trio 1957 "Way Out West" album, featuring Ray Brown on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums, are two of the quintessential jazz aggregations that set the standard for this grouping. The Billie Davies Band is a pianoless ensemble that manages to overcome the challenges that are inherent in such an arrangement: maintaining stimulating textures and colors without generating chaos; keeping clear harmonic structures; and eschewing loss of place by musicians and listeners. Stripping down the date's selections to their elemental harmonic and melodic form, the trio imbues each song with renewed innovative inventions that emanate from a genuine awareness and respect for their histories. The listener is treated to jazz inclinations within the trio that bristle with cutting-edge freshness. Familiarity and accessibility ignite the listener's interest and assist the players in rising to the challenge of achieving and maintaining harmonic structure on the opening track (Stella By Starlight), Victor Young and Ned Washington's beautiful jazz standard. Trombonist Tom Bone Ralls raspy, but rounded and melodic opening solo is answered by drummer Billie Davies' tasteful, intricate, progressive polyrhythms. It falls naturally to drummer Davies and bassist Oliver Steinberg to map out the changes clearly, leaving space for Bone Ralls' trombone to execute the melody and improvise his composition (Downtown In The Rain). However, it is the trio's reading of Miles Davis' (Jean Pierre: We Want Miles; 1981), that showed the highest level of harmonic and melodic magical interplay; achieved around the sound of Davies' Tony Williams- like time signatures and Steinberg's pulsing bass beat; giving the tune a textured, slinky strut, overlayed with Bone Ralls stupefying trombone reprise of Davis' sound, and ethereal, chant-like voicing, culminating in a Milesian, signature Harmon muted-like coda. Tom Bone Ralls plays the trombone like he's got all the time he needs; not lazy; his phrasing is well rounded, pristine, and is impacted with depth, and an inspired eloquence that is the result of his comprehensive playing experience. His interpretations of John Coltrane's (Naima), and Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Cuban classic (Afro Blue) are soulful, satisfying, and considerably informed by Davies' drumming which eschews self indulgence, instead making space for Tom Bone Ralls to convey each tune's simple, subtle beauty with ravishing, elemental clarity. Billie Davies stunning drumming technique and style are undoubtedly by- products of the vicissitudes attendant to her existence as a 'lifelong natural musician'; and a creative passionate focus to her music, matched only by a fierce inner muse that shepherds her personal and professional stratagems. But it is her uncanny ability to 'listen,' 'hear,' and communicate a certain emotional, common feeling to listeners, musicians, and audience, that makes her a "jazz drummer" and nourishes her boundless improvisational skills; anticipating the conversations on three of her avant gard compositions, (Green Cheese; BUrst; High Noon) between bassist Steinberg and trombonist Bone Ralls and providing context, energy and drive. In the end, many elements make this date work; the artists, their talent, and experience; Surely Billie Davies' dream and creative endeavor to produce a sublime, genre-stretching, versatile, committed trio. But when everything is considered, tallied, and summed up; the total indicates, that it's really: "All About Love." ~CJ Bond, JAZZ MUSIC -
JAZZ TIMES Female Drummer Billie Davies, who originally hails from Belgium is at the helm, leading her trio through a well- balanced program of standards re- arranged and originals that complement each other in the context of this recording with ease. This is not for the casual listener who lives in the swing zone – All About Love is just that, a true love story of the improvisation of jazz and its innate nature to stretch, pull and push the boundaries. The Billie Davies Trio truly shows its devotion to the jazz idiom with this wonderful debut of creative modern borderline Avant- garde offering – truly a delight on many levels and I hope not the last from The Billie Davies Trio. ~Geannine Reid, Jazz Times -
THE BORDERLAND by: John M. Peters The Billie Davies Trio - All About Love (Cobra Basement) Oct 5, 2012 All About Love could equally have been called All About Improv as this album is all about the spontaneous moment that jazz is created. A trio of musicians set in a circle facing each other in a small recording studio and playing off each others creativity. With Billie Davies on drums, Tom Bones Ralls on trombone and Oliver Steinberg on bass, this is a trio that stretches the boundaries beyond the norm. The album contains a mix of original music by the trio and several covers by the likes of Miles Davis, Mongo Santamaria and John Coltrane. Ms Davies hails from Belgium but is veteran traveler around the world and has been long settled in the USA, where she has absorbed a lot of jazz and mastered the drums. I think this may be her first album as leader, but it has a confidence hewn from much playing of improv and avant-garde jazz. As you would imagine with such a line- up of instruments the sound is spare and sparse, rather raw but refined through the musical experience of the three players. All About Love contains ten tracks and their titles are: Stella By Starlight, Downtown in the Rain, Jean Pierre, Naima, Afro Blue, Green Cheese, Burst!, High Noon, Afro Blue Too, Stella By Starlight Too. I don't think this is an album that will appeal to the casual jazz listener - the strong improvisation and avant-garde nature of the music demands serious attention from a committed listener. But if they do commit their time and ears to this album they won't be disappointed by what they hear. For more information about this artist, album and availability visit: www.billiedavies.com
JAZZMUSIC by: CJ Bond Oct 2, 2012. The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love. Year: 2012 Style: Jazz Label: Cobra Basement Musicians: Billie Davies - drums; Tom Bone Ralls - trombone; Oliver Steinberg - bass. CD Review: Jazz combos without chordal accompaniment (pianoless) are rareties these days- if they exist at all. Gerry Mulligan's 1950 quartet, with trumpeter Chet Baker, bassist Bob Whitlock, and drummer Chico Hamilton; along with The Sonny Rollins Trio 1957 "Way Out West" album, featuring Ray Brown on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums, are two of the quintessential jazz aggregations that set the standard for this grouping. The Billie Davies Trio is a pianoless ensemble that manages to overcome the challenges that are inherent in such an arrangement: maintaining stimulating textures and colors without generating chaos; keeping clear harmonic structures; and eschewing loss of place by musicians and listeners. Stripping down the date's selections to their elemental harmonic and melodic form, the trio imbues each song with renewed innovative inventions that emanate from a genuine awareness and respect for their histories. The listener is treated to jazz inclinations within the trio that bristle with cutting-edge freshness. Familiarity and accessibility ignite the listener's interest and assist the players in rising to the challenge of achieving and maintaining harmonic structure on the opening track (Stella By Starlight), Victor Young and Ned Washington's beautiful jazz standard. Trombonist Tom Bone Ralls raspy, but rounded and melodic opening solo is answered by drummer Billie Davies' tasteful, intricate, progressive polyrhythms. It falls naturally to drummer Davies and bassist Oliver Steinberg to map out the changes clearly, leaving space for Bone Ralls' trombone to execute the melody and improvise his composition (Downtown In The Rain). However, it is the trio's reading of Miles Davis' (Jean Pierre: We Want Miles; 1981), that showed the highest level of harmonic and melodic magical interplay; achieved around the sound of Davies' Tony Williams- like time signatures and Steinberg's pulsing bass beat; giving the tune a textured, slinky strut, overlayed with Bone Ralls stupefying trombone reprise of Davis' sound, and ethereal, chant-like voicing, culminating in a Milesian, signature Harmon muted-like coda. Tom Bone Ralls plays the trombone like he's got all the time he needs; not lazy; his phrasing is well rounded, pristine, and is impacted with depth, and an inspired eloquence that is the result of his comprehensive playing experience. His interpretations of John Coltrane's (Naima), and Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Cuban classic (Afro Blue) are soulful, satisfying, and considerably informed by Davies' drumming which eschews self indulgence, instead making space for Bone Ralls to convey each tune's simple, subtle beauty with ravishing, elemental clarity. Billie Davies stunning drumming technique and style are undoubtedly by- products of the vicissitudes attendant to her existence as a 'lifelong natural musician'; and a creative passionate focus to her music, matched only by a fierce inner muse that shepherds her personal and professional stratagems. But it is her uncanny ability to 'listen,' 'hear,' and communicate a certain emotional, common feeling to listeners, musicians, and audience, that makes her a "jazz drummer" and nourishes her boundless improvisational skills; anticipating the conversations on three of her avant gard compositions, (Green Cheese; BUrst; High Noon) between bassist Steinberg and trombonist Bone Ralls and providing context, energy and drive. In the end, many elements make this date work; the artists, their talent, and experience; Surely Billie Davies' dream and creative endeavor to produce a sublime, genre-stretching, versatile, committed trio. But when everything is considered, tallied, and summed up; the total indicates, that it's really: "All About Love." Track Listing: Stella By Starlight; Downtown In The Rain; Jean Pierre; Naima; Afro Blue; Green Cheese; BUrst; High Noon; Afro Blue Too; Stella By Starlight Too. Recording Engineer: George Radai. Mixing by Mike Davies and Billie Davies. CD Mastering by John Vestman at Vestman Mastering. Recording & Sound Technology/Engineering Management: Mike Davies. A Cobra Basement Production. Recorded at Mike & Billie Davies Studio, Hollywood, California.
ALL ABOUT JAZZ Billie Davies: All About Love (2012) By HRAYR ATTARIAN, Published: September 21, 2012 Billie Davies: All About Love Idiosyncratic drummer Billie Davies is mostly an autodidact whose natural talent, relentless, explorative spirit and multifaceted experiences have led to an innovative approach to jazz. Her bold individualism is showcased on All About Love, a collaborative effort that has her democratically guiding an unusual, bottom-heavy ensemble with lyrical trombonist Tom Bone Ralls and versatile bassist Oliver Steinberg. Davies creates complex motives and blurs the distinction between melody and rhythm on such pieces as John Coltrane's "Naima" and the minimalistic second take of the Mongo Santamaria classic "Afro Blue Too." Her rich harmonies contrast nicely with the atonality of her own "High Noon" that flirts with the avant-garde. The tune also demonstrates the intense camaraderie that drives the intrepid and unpredictable group interplay. These intelligent three-way conversations, with their musical twists and turns, endow the two short originals, "Green Cheese" and "Burst," with a deliciously surreal atmosphere as Ralls' earthy and expansive trombone blows over the rapidly evolving tapestry of tight bass and drum cadences. Ralls angular style does not sacrifice any of his warmth and lyricism on "Stella by Starlight," and his bluesy embellishments remain highly cerebral on "Afro Blue." His muted sound still swaggers on Miles Davis' fusion-esque "Jean Pierre." The track also features Steinberg's soulful electric bass and Davies' edgy and swinging kit work. Steinberg is equally adept on the acoustic version of his instrument, as he amply demonstrates with a complex pizzicato solo on "Stella by Starlight Too." His cool and dependable grooves anchor another Davies theme, "Downtown in the Rain." On this third release as a leader, the Belgium native/California-based Davies demonstrates a mature temperament as she skirts the edges of modal and free extemporizations with her delightfully singular trio. The intimate yet progressive music on this too brief album is like modern poetry, mordant yet sublime. Track Listing: Stella By Starlight; Downtown in the Rain; Jean Pierre; Naima; Afro Blue; Green Cheese; Burst!; High Noon; Afro Blue Too; Stella By Starlight Too.
SOMETHING ELSE! September 15, 2012 at 7:57 am The Billie Davies Trio – all about Love (2012) by S. Victor Aaron Belgium native Billie Davies first started drumming at the age of three, and even though she dabbled in a number of other artistic endeavors, like singing and DJ’ing, her skills behind the kit were notable enough to garner the attention of Max Roach, who offered her a scholarship at the Berklee School of Music. It was at a time of her life when she was having too much fun to engage in serious studies, so she turned it down. Eventually though, Davies devoted herself full time toward drumming, picking up innumerable styles that she has mastered, including soul/funk, blues, classical, and all shades of jazz. In the last few year, though, she’s immersed herself into jazz forms exclusively, moving to Hollywood and forming a trio, the Billie Davies Trio. The fruits of her collaboration with trio members Tom Bone Ralls (trombone) and Oliver Steinberg (bass) are set forth in this new CD, all about Love. all about Love is all about relaxed improvisation, with a hard swing coming from Davies and a distillation of each song’s melody down to only its crucial notes. That leaves vast, wide open spaces in which to stretch out. What sets Davies’ record apart from other drummer-led records is this: she doesn’t have to play so hard nosed to get herself noticed, because there’s only a bass and a tactfully played trombone in front of her. She’s able to attract attention by playing naturally. Davies, as noted, swings her ass off, but is always layering it with polyrhythms and tasteful fills, a style not terribly afar from the great Elvin Jones’ or the subtle complexity of Peter Erskine. There are a lot of well-worn standards here: “Naima,” “Jean Pierre” (Youtube below) and two renditions a piece of “Stella By Starlight” and “Afro Blue.” That might typically trouble me, but the performances themselves make too much hay for me to pay much mind to what standards have been chosen. In addition to these tunes, Ralls turns in a melodic original “Downtown In The Rain,”(Youtube below) and there are a couple of brief group improvs “Green Cheese” and BUrst!,” as well as a bluesy jam “High Noon.” The loose feel of all about Love and the effortless mastery of rhythms displayed by Davies make this an easy album to sink your ears into, even though it’s also a record that pushes out the songs to abstract places. Billie Davies has been around a lot of places doing a lot of different things, but on this record, she seems to have settled into the comfy environs of modern jazz.
ALL ABOUT JAZZ The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love (2012) By C. MICHAEL BAILEY, Published: September 2, 2012 The Billie Davies Trio: All About Love Track review of "Afro Blue / Afro Blue Too" Jazz compressed into small places, as it is in drummer Billie Davies' trombone trio, often gives the most unpredictable yet satisfying results. Piano-less trios are nothing new, but one lead by a trombonist, while still being comparable to Sonny Rollins' tenor saxophone trios of the 1950s, certainly is. Trombonist Tom Bone Ralls is careful to fill any space, avoiding the overuse of slurs and glissandos. The collection of originals and standards is largely introspective and influenced by saxophonist John Coltrane's horizontal method of improvisation. This Coltrane strain is most evident on Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" and its reprise—long a staple of Coltrane's late period catharsis. Davies provides polyrhythmic propellant to bassist Oliver Steinberg, while Ralls plays the harmonic head straight. His solo progressively becomes more abstract without becoming dissonant and distant. Steinberg sets up the hypnotic mantra that is punctuated by Davies and takes advantage of the space provided judiciously before the theme reemerges. "Afro Blue Too" revisits the tune, adding sharper corners to the melody and rhythm while softening the solo spaces. This provides for a nice contrast on this spare instrumental recording.
THIS IS BOOKS MUSIC
by: John Book
REVIEW: The Billie Davies Trio’s “all about Love.”
The music created by Billie Davies (drums), Oliver Steinberg (bass), and Tom Bone Ralls (trombone) on all above Love. (self-released sounds like that cool “after hours” jazz you seek and want to find at 3 or 4 in the morning when you motel smells like cigarettes and ass, you’re hungry, and you’re not tired just yet. Yet you enter a nightclub or basement at the end of town, it still smells like cigarettes and ass but you feel like you’re in familiar territory. This is love, this is jazz, this is life. This is music.
The choice of songs played by Billie Davies and her trio are quite good, including versions of “Naima”, “Afro Blue”, “Stella By Starlight”, and “Jean Pierre”. Davies’ drumming is the anchor behind these, but to hear what Ralls and Steinberg do with the trombone and bass respectively… again, it feels like “after hours” jazz and you may want to listen to this with your eyes closed, wear a blindfold, or simply wait until 2 or 3am in the morning to get a true feel for what they’re trying to create. It’s intimate, moving, and powerful, and those who enjoy their jazz in trio settings will lap this up deliciously. Thank you to Davies, Ralls, and Steinberg for doing this for the Love.
Critical Jazz
Brent Black
The Billie Davies Trio
All About Love
Cobra Basement 2012
After reviewing releases for well over two years now I know what I like...namely an artist that can take "old school" and flip the sound into "new cool." The Billie Davies Trio does this as well as any trio around but with literally bare bones instrumentation they run on passion, ingenuity and raw talent that ensembles twice their size spend an entire career looking for.
All About Love hits the streets on 09/25/12 and what we have are some iconic classics given a more contemporary spin while maintaining the integrity of the original. When most people think trio they think piano, bass and drums. Here we have Billie Davies on drums, Tom Bone Ralls on trombone and Oliver Steinberg holding things together on bass. Organic, eclectic, or jazz minimalism it works! Outside of a little reverb on the trombone the recording is literally live in the studio, as raw and real as live jazz gets. Opening with "Stella By Starlight" we have a straight ahead swing, lyrically driven and with spot on phrasing and dynamics. While the instumentation may be somewhat eclectic the accessibility of the music should satisfy those that often say, "I don't like jazz but I like that..." The John Coltrane classic "Naima" is dialed back to a more expressive and soulful ballad showcasing the virtuoso talent that is Tom Bone Ralls. Steinberg is rock steady on bass and the deceptively subtle nuances from Davies on drums help take the musical train straight to the station. "Afro Blue" has a nice syncopated pop and harmonic direction. Swing is king.
What is incredibly refreshing with All About Love is that the music is allowed to flow freely. Nothing is self indulgent, pretentious or over blown but instead Davies as most good drummers will do - pushes the music front and center. There is all most nothing that is not enjoyable with this release. The organic sound is reminiscent of the work of Rudy Van Gelder which should give you an idea of just how pristine the quality of this disc really is. The trio doesn't hang out in odd meter or subscribe to the speed is king school of music theory. The Billie Davies Trio plays it straight, when you are that good you can do that.
Billie Davies has gone from Bohemian jazz gypsy to a formidable talent in jazz drumming. The irony is that her interest was peaked by the Phil Collins pop smash "In The Air Tonight." Bottom line is it is not the road taken but reaching your destination as a musician that counts. A superior release that hits all its marks perfectly!
Midwest Record
Volume 35/Number 308
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
COBRA BASEMENT
BILLIE DAVIES TRIO/All About Love:
Nothing new here folks, but a lot of nice playing along the way. Cool school post bop improv, live work outs on jazz standards fill the disc and fill the time nicely. Playing together in the same room in the same take, old school style, this is a nice back in the day throw back jazz trio set with a lady drummer leading the way. Fun stuff that doesn’t aim to change the world, just make it a nicer place.
D. Coffeng
Hollywood
I would describe this music as "contemporary modal with a romantic twist" or perhaps "neo-Cool Jazz". Very much like Freddie Hubbard, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy & Jackie McLean but in 2012. Lyrical, good phrasing, nice rhythms but at the same time very approachable and listenable even for non jazz audiences. One could not better describe it then "Post-Cool Jazz".
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