I am so very happy with my new album "Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz)" that has been released on the digital market on April 20, 2025.
You can find all the major links below where it is available to buy or stream... A retrospective of never before released music created during a 6 year period, 90 minutes of Free Improvisation, Beyond Jazz, Avant-garde in the key of Jazz music. The musical improvisations on "Retrospectives (In The Key of Jazz)", these works of art, are some of the favorite moments of what happened around me in Hollywood, Los Angeles and New Orleans between 2012 and 2018, resulting in this heartfelt music, uncompromised and freely improvised and expressed with full passion and intensity straight from the heart and the soul, in the moment. This music was mostly recorded by Mike Davies during rehearsals, only the very in-crowd got to ever hear these. Link to the press release: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/news/exciting-new-free-improvisation-album-release-by-billie-davies/On ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/2007310/album/328945 On Bandcamp: https://billiedavies.bandcamp.com/album/retrospectives On All About Jazz: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/album/retrospectives-in-the-key-of-jazz-billie-davies On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2AxhHZ25J2xbBFCxpBMDqX?si=5qOsGTL6RKGsUpO6_oNcdQ On Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/retrospectives-in-the-key-of-jazz/1804333051 On Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/732151581 On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kCvJ1L5wEnNWMvbK4qJeKhh30LG0Mgvh0 Billie Davies' "Do Do Kindje Doo" from Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz) was the featured song at All About Jazz. You can still listen to it for free from here... https://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/track-do-do-kindje-doo-by-billie-davies ... Enjoy! :) "A good way to gauge Davies' 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." - S. Victor Aaron, Something Else! on her album "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" released in 2015.
"Billie's music is intense, free and creative, supported by musicians of the highest caliber (the drums in particular 😁!). This music, however, demands attention and concentration. It's not to be consumed at any time of day. In my opinion, it's important to make the effort to go towards it. Just like when you decide to read a book. You can't do anything else when you read a book. You can't cook or answer e-mails while listening. Bravo for what you're doing." - Jacques Pauper, Couleurs Jazz Radio, Paris. (Apr 18, 2025)
"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)
"I want to play as if I never played my instrument before, as if every time is the first time and I want to end up with music that is not written down but is felt and expressed at that moment of playing, of recording, of performing. This deliberate moment of choices, chances and inspirations may become a specific type of music, but it never ends up being predetermined or planned music, the notes played are never written down. I just want to end up with something where I hear unexpected, emotional, passionate, challenging music never heard before." Billie Davies.
"Billie Davies is an accomplished free-jazz drummer. 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)
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 the words of Max Roach: "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, in the San Francisco Bay Area, she recorded "Cobra Basemento", that included "The Man From Tollund" that was posted on at the time Download.com, which became MP3.com, and a few days later it had close to a 1000 downloads, and "Dreams", she called these recordings the infamous boombox recordings. 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.
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's "12 VOLT" release 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 Dec 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 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" with Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson, Ari Kohn, Iris P and Allie Porter.
She received more attention due to a player feature in Downbeat Magazine May 2016 edition, "BILLIE DAVIES '20 Years Stronger'" that was written after her release of "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" in October of 2015.
"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", now rereleased as "Perspectives", by BILLIE DAVIES with Evan Oberla on piano, keys and trombone and Oliver Watkinson on upright bass and 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 a free improvisation album called "Whadeva Live" at Dangerous Art Studios in New Orleans on Feb 13, 2020.
In 2021 she worked on studies and concepts for her "Music for the 24th Century" project with Branden Lewis and Damani Butler, she ended up calling the results of that 3 days of creating free improvisation music "Pandemos" a study suite of 10 works.
In July of 2022 she made a permanent move to West Palm Beach, Florida.
In 2024 she released the album "On Hollywood Boulevard (Live at The Mint in New Orleans)" with Iris P on vocals and the single "Thinking Of Marie Laveau". Both were recorded around the same period of 2016-2017 in New Orleans with Billie Davies on her e- drums, Evan Oberla on piano, keys and trombone and Oliver Watkinson on el. bass.
On April 20, 2025 she released "Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz)", a retrospective of free improvisation and avant-garde jazz music that appears in chronological order between 2012 and 2018 with one and a half hours of studio and live recorded music.
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