Updated: January 12, 2021
Born: December 10, 1955
“Billie Davies is an 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, asking questions of them and replying with the fusion of styles that she has built up over her travels” —Chris Baber, Jazz Views (Jun 30, 2016)
By 1977 Billie was working in the Private Night Club sector as a DJ in Cologne, Germany. That set the stage for a successful DJ career in Belgium a few years later, she remembers Les Cinq Anneaux where she packed the house every weekend. She became one of the top DJs in demand in Private Night Clubs, Disco Clubs and Bars.
Aged 25 Davies started the transition to become a professional musician.
She played and performed all over Europe, in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece for the next 7 years
.
At a crossroads in her musical career, in 1984, while living and performing in the South of France (Montpellier, Toulouse, Biarritz, La Rochelle), Billie ended up receiving a grant from Max Roach to come study at Berklee College of Music, this was after he heard one of her tapes she laid down with a bass player in Montpellier, France. Billie was however having too much fun in the south of France, living the life of a gypsy jazz musician and therefore decided not to take the offer. In his words: Hearing from your tape, you could learn more fundamental drumming techniques, but I also hear the natural drummer, so my advice is for you not to worry too much about your technical skill, you will develop your own, I can definitely hear that, but just in case that you might want to study in a good program, please accept my invitation in the form of a talent grant to come study at the Berklee College of Music, all you need to worry about is finding a place to live and some money to survive.
A move to the United States at 32 gave her an opportunity to play all over the west coast. In 1987 in Oregon, she met and played a few times with Leroy Vinegar, and then later in early 1988 she moved to California, San Francisco where she was mostly active in North Beach and in the Lower-Haight district, where she met and ended up playing a few times with John Handy and played frequently with local jazz notables at their unforgiving jams, in her words: the best learning school she ever had.
In the mid-nineties she recorded Cobra Basemento, that included The Man From Tollund, and Dreams, the infamous boombox recordings, in the Bay Area. They were never commercially released but preserved for the future.
In 2009, she moved to Hollywood, California and released all about Love. with Tom Bone Ralls and Oliver Steinberg and 12 VOLT with Daniel Coffeng and Adam Levy and was awarded best Jazz Artist in 2013 by LAMA.
In March of 2014 she moved to New Orleans where she has released Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, with Evan Oberla, Alex Blaine, Branden Lewis and Ed Strohsahl, On Hollywood Boulevard with Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson and Iris P and PERSPECTIVES II with Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson, Ari Kohn, Iris P and Allie Porter and was nominated Best Contemporary Jazz Artist by 2017 Best Of The Beat Awards and OffBeat Magazine and Best Drummer by 2019 Best Of The Beat Awards.
Highlights
Billie Davies is an American, self-taught, natural, drummer and composer best known for her free, instinctively avant-garde compositions since the mid nineties, and her improvisational drumming techniques she has performed in Europe and in the US. All of her music is improvisational ... a conversation between musicians and musical instruments, a joint emotional expression inspired by a certain feeling, thought or perspective that is being communicated to an audience, a listener, a community. Billie Davies hails originally from Brugge, Belgium. She played and performed all over Europe until immigrating to the United States at 32, where she has been active as a musician ever since.
While living and playing in the South of France in the early 1980's, Billie received a talent grant from Max Roach to study at Berklee College of Music.
Her 2012 release of “all about Love” solidified her position as a professional jazz musician. This recording of standards and original music, charted #1 in CMJ Jazz College Radio Charts for ‘top jazz add’ in new albums and went on to stay in the top 20 for 4 weeks. Also well received in Canada, the album ended up in the Top 10 on three different !Earshot Jazz charts.
In October, 2013 Billie released “12 VOLT” which garnered national and international attention. CJ Bond, JAZZ MUSIC, wrote, “12 VOLT” features exclusively original compositions of Billie Davies, and adds the crucial tyne of 'composer/arranger' to her sterling artistic fork, augmenting fearless innovation. Jan Hocek of His Voice in Prague wrote:”Without hesitation - HIGH VOLTAGE avant-garde JAZZ - one of the most remarkable trio albums of the year!
In 2013 Billie Davies received the Jazz Artist of the Year Award by the 23rd Annual Los Angeles Music Awards.
In March of 2014 she moved to New Orleans where she has graced stages ever since and recorded 3 albums.
She received more attention due to a player feature in Downbeat Magazine May 2016 edition, BILLIE DAVIES '20 Years Stronger'.
On Hollywood Boulevard, her CD released in 12/10/2016 became a January 2017 Editor's Pick on DownBeat.com.
December 2017 Billie Davies was nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz Artist in New Orleans by 2017 Best Of The Beat Awards.
September 2018 She released PERSPECTIVES II by BILLIE DAVIES trio Featuring Ari Kohn, woodwinds, Iris P, vocals and Allie Porter, vocals.
December 2019 Billie Davies was nominated Best Drummer in New Orleans by 2019 Best Of The Beat Awards.
Late 2019 she started contributing with Damani Butler, an electronic artist and Maude Caillat a woodwind player, and they ended up recording Whadeva live at Dangerous Art Studios in New Orleans on Feb 13, 2020.
Gear
Sonor Force Series Drums with 9-ply CLTF Basswood Shells: 10"x9" Tom Tom, 12"x10" Tom Tom, 14"x14" Floor Tom, 20"x16" Bass Drum. Sonor Ascent Series 13" x 7" Beech Shell Snare Drum. Remo FiberSkyn 3 Powerstroke 3 Ambassador batter heads. Vintage Ambassador snare batter head. Sonor Martini SE with 9-ply Poplar Shells: 14'' x 12'' Bass Drum, 8'' x 8'' Tom Tom, 13'' x 10'' Floor Tom, 12'' x 5'' Steel Snare Drum. Remo FiberSkyn 3 Ambassador batter heads. Sabian B8 Pro Acoustic cymbals: 14" Hi-Hats, 10" Splash, 14" Thin Crash, 16" Thin Crash, 18" Medium Crash, 20" Ride, 20" Duo Ride, 18" China. Shure Microphones: SM-57 (Toms), Beta 56A (Snare & Toms), Beta 52A (Bass) Audio Technica: AT 2035 (overheads) Samson Microphones: CO2 Pencil Condenser (overheads) Yamaha DTX-550 Digital Drums with DTX-700 Drum Module with 3-zone PCY- 135/PCY-155 Digital cymbals. Roland V-Drums PM-30 Digital Drum Monitor 200W, Class-D amplification. Vic Firth Peter Erskine Drumsticks, Peter Erskine Ride Drumsticks. Roland RD 64 Digital Piano
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All About Jazz Articles
Album Review
- Whadeva (Live at Dangerous Art Studios February 13, 2020) by Geno Thackara
- Perspectives II by Jerome Wilson
- On Hollywood Boulevard by Budd Kopman
- On Hollywood Boulevard by Sacha O'Grady
- Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon by Budd Kopman
- Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon by Roger Farbey
- 12 Volt by C. Michael Bailey
- 12 Volt by Hrayr Attarian
Take Five With...
Album Review
- All About Love by Hrayr Attarian
Articles Across the Web
- Power Players: Billie Davies Plays Her Own Music. OffBeat Magazine
- Wikipedia
- Billie Davies Press
- Billie Davies Press Kit
- Billie Davies - On Hollywood Boulevard (Bobby Reed, Downbeat magazine). 2017.
- BILLIE DAVIES: ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (Jan Hocek, His Voice)
- Billie Davies 'Twenty Years Stronger'. DownBeat Magazine 2016
- BILLIE DAVIES– Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moon (Chris Baber - Jazz Views)
- Avant-garde drummer Billie Davies’ new album “Hand in Hand In the Hand of the Moon” (Matt Micucci - Jazziz)
- Billie Davies – Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon (2015). (S Victor Aaron - Something Else)
- BILLIE DAVIES - 12 VOLT : HIGH VOLTAGE avant-garde JAZZ by Jan Hocek December 5, 2013
- The Billie Davies Trio – all about Love (2012) (S Victor Aaron - Something Else!)
September 10, 2018
New Orleans Drummer Billie Davies Announces Her New Release,...
April 20, 2018
Billie Davies Announces Perspectives 2 Performance At Art Klub Theatre...
October 24, 2016
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience - A New Direction In New Orleans
October 04, 2015
"Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" - Drummer Billie Davies With...
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
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
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.

guitar

saxophone, tenor

piano

saxophone, alto

trumpet

bass, acoustic

drums

drums

piano

drums