Press

“Billie Davies - A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard. It is clear that Hollywood Boulevard is a place of strong contrasts —lots of big money next to an evident seediness, beautiful sunshine and climate next to the ugliness of panhandling, drug abuse and pimps —with the musicians, and other entertainers, trying to do their thing in the middle of it all. There is a strong stream-of-consciousness feeling to the proceedings and a lot of echo/reverb which helps to create a sense of a dark, somewhat dangerous underbelly being present despite (or because of?) the natural beauty surrounding it. In the end, the success of On Hollywood Boulevard rests on whether it accomplishes what it set out to do, which here is recreate through music the vibe of a particular place as experientially remembered by Davies. In that it most definitely succeeds.”
- Budd Kopman, All About Jazz (Feb 19, 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)


“BILLIE DAVIES - A NU EXPERIENCE -On Hollywood Boulevard. On the one hand this set represents a very new direction for Billie Davies, working in Nu Jazz, which bridges jazz and contemporary R&B and hip hop. Her choice of an electronic drum kit also lends some really interesting textures to the sounds she produces. On the other hand, the drumming is as solid, nuanced and captivating as ever. Throughout the set, Davies leads the music, pushing the pulse and emphasising the words in ways that encourages keys and bass to find the gaps and cleverly work around and within them. I particularly liked the evocative playing of Oberla on trombone on several of the tracks. The group is a winning combination and one that promises an exciting change of direction for Davies.”
- Chris Baber, Jazz Views (Feb 03, 2017)


“JAZZ'HALO. Billie Davies - On Hollywood Boulevard. 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. A beautiful example of the vitality of the New Orleans scene.”
- Claude Loxhay, Jazz'Halo (Jan 06, 2017)


“DownBeat Magazine. January 2017 Editor's Pick. Billie Davies, "On Hollywood Boulevard". 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 (Jan 03, 2017)


“On he new CD "On Hollywood Boulevard", 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... 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.”
- Jan Hocek, his VOICE (Jan 03, 2017)


“BILLIE DAVIES SAYS JAZZ EQUALS FREEDOM IN ALL OF ITS FORM AND EXPRESSIONS... Jazz enthusiast Billie Davies, came to the streets that is Hollywood, particularly Hollywood Boulevard, where she constructed her all new album “On Hollywood Boulevard”. Through the years, living there and going elsewhere, in which time, she says it’s about life, her life, as well as the lives in general, and how the media, it having such a big influence on our lives, through the means of TV, movies, magazines, music, and stars, of course. She then went on to experience, what can be said and seen within those streets, that it can be found upon this release, which she discusses dearly.”
- Natalie Perez, Skope Magazine (Dec 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. Billie Davies offers a cool confident update on jazz with the playful nature of “On Hollywood Boulevard”.”
- Beach Sloth, Skope Magazine (Dec 19, 2016)


“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. 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.”
- Sacha O'Grady, All About Jazz (Dec 06, 2016)


“Since recording, releasing and performing "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" as an ode to the work of her dearest friend, Belgian artist Serge Vandercam (1924 – 2005), and performing with Billie & The Bad Boyzzzz and the Billie Davies Trio in 2015- 2016 it slowly became time for her new album project “On Hollywood Boulevard”, for which Billie wrote the melodies and lyrics, to become a reality. After 20 years of playing, producing and releasing instrumental jazz, Billie Davies is turning a page and is bringing us a Nu Vocal and Electric Experience, “On Hollywood Boulevard”.”
- Editor, Jazz'Halo (Dec 06, 2016)


“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. ​”
- Chris Baber, Jazz Views (Jun 30, 2016)


"My very first proud moment came at a crossroads in my musical career, while living and playing and performing with Claude Mazet in the South of France (Montpellier, Toulouse, Biarritz, La Rochelle), I ended up receiving a talent grant from Max Roach to come study at Berklee College of Music, this was after he heard the tape I had sent him that I laid down with a bass player in Montpellier, France. I 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..."
- Bandwidth Daily, Bandwidth Daily (Jun 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 a specific time and place.”
- Budd Kopman, All About Jazz (May 24, 2016)


“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-gar- de 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.”
- Jennifer Odell, Down Beat Magazine (Mar 29, 2016)


“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...”
- Matt Micucci, JAZZIZ (Dec 19, 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. 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.”
- Noe Cugny, OffBEAT (Oct 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.”
- Roger Farbey, All About Jazz (Oct 28, 2015)


“COBRA BASEMENT BILLIE DAVIES/Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moon 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 Sprector, MIDWEST RECORD (Oct 24, 2015)


“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 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”
- Claude Loxhay, JAZZ'HALO (Oct 20, 2015)


“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...”
- Jan Hocek, hisVOICE (Oct 12, 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.”
- S. Victor Aaron, SOMETHING ELSE! (Oct 09, 2015)


“Billie G. Davies: "a natural talent, a tonal painter of sounds" Born in Brugge in 1955, Billie Goegebeur discovered drums thanks to her grandfather Maurice Clybouw. First she played throughout Europe. In 1986, she moved to the US, where she played with Leroy Vinegar (the bass player who recorded with Shelly Manne, Chico Hamilton and Sonny Rollins) or with John Handy (he is well known for his record 'Live at the Monterey Festival' with Mike White on violin) and she could record several albums: 'Cobra Basemento', 'Dreams', 'All about Love', '12 Volt'. Now she has a new project: ''Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon'' with her Billie Davies Ensemble. In 2013, All about Jazz said: "Billie Davies is mostly an autodidact whose natural talent, explorative spirit and multifaceted experiences have led to an innovative approach to jazz." The American critic S.V. Aaron adds: "When listening to Davies play, it's easier to think of her not as a drummer but a tonal painter".”
- Claude Loxhay, Jazz'halo (Mar 29, 2015)