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To Jazz or not to Jazz, there is no question. (Louis Armstrong)

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BILLIE DAVIES New Orleans, LA Jazz / Avant Jazz / Avant Garde PLAY SONGS » SHARE SONGS » VISIT PROFILE » "To Jazz or not to Jazz, there is no question." (Louis Armstrong) It has been a while and a lot has happened... :) Never a dull moment with Billie Davies :) A New Line-up for the BILLIE DAVIES Ensemble  debuted for the performance at Music At The Mint on March 6th where we had a great turn out for a Friday afternoon. L to R: Branden Lewis on trumpet, Evan Oberla on trombone, Alex Blaine on sax, Ed Strohsahl on bass, Billie Davies on drums. Audio and Video of this performance will be available soon. The first 8 songs on Billie Davies' playlist at  http://www.billiedavies.com/  or on  ReverbNation  are by the new BILLIE DAVIES Ensemble and are part of the performance set list for current performances (including the performance at Music At The Mint). The BILLIE DAVIES Ensemble is very busy in the studio now working on t...

BILLIE DAVIES at NOLA's

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BILLIE DAVIES at NOLA's BILLIE DAVIES Ensemble http:// www.billiedavies.com/ BillieDavies_Ensembles.html Billie Davies : drums. Daniel Coffeng : guitar. Will Mack : bass. Performance at: Nola's - A Taste of New Orleans Doors open at 5 pm Performance Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00pm Address: 734 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013 Neighborhood: Downtown L.A. Full Details: http://nolasla.com/ billie-davies-group/

Billie Davies: 12 Volt (2013) By C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

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Billie Davies: 12 Volt (2013) By C. MICHAEL BAILEY , Published: November 22, 2013 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 unadorne...

Dr. Will Smith's Playlist: Review (Avant Garde): “12 Volt” - Billie Davies

Dr. Will Smith's Playlist: Review (Avant Garde): “12 Volt” - Billie Davies : Review (Avant Garde): “12 Volt” - Billie Davies Billie Davies has an interesting story.   Her travels have led her to many places.   She began her journey in Belgium and grew up singing, writing, and eventually playing drums at the age of 14.   After several awards for her artistic creations, she became a DJ at 23 and played in clubs in Germany and Belgium.   It was at this time she was offered a grant to study at Berklee College of Music under Max Roach after he heard her audition tape.   He felt that she “could learn more fundamental drumming techniques” but he heard “the natural drummer” in her.  She declined the move to the US at that time but became a professional drummer at 25 citing Al Foster, Billy Higgins, Billy Cobham, Jack De Johnette, Ed Thigpen, and Peter Erskine as her biggest influences. After moving to the US at 32 she settled in Los Angeles, Calif...

Billie Davies: 12 VOLT

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Billie Davies Trio: 12 Volt Billie Davies Trio: 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 Django Reinhardt 1910 - 1953 guitar '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 intrica...

Something Else! Reviews: Billie Davies – 12 Volt (2013) Reviewed by S. Victor Aaron.

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Jazz , Uncategorized — October 2, 2013 at 9:00 am Billie Davies – 12 Volt (2013) by S. Victor Aaron 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 mu...