BILLIE DAVIES - '20 Years Stronger'. DownBeat | Digital Edition | May 2016
DownBeat | Digital Edition | May 2016 BILLIE DAVIES... 'Twenty Years Stronger' Mar 31, 2016 e on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 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 te...