Billie Davies walking the red carpet of the 23rd Annual LA Music Awards with Mike Davies
to receive the 2013 "Jazz Artist" award.
Showing posts with label L.A. Music Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label L.A. Music Awards. Show all posts
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Press, Reviews and Accolades for avant garde jazz drummer Billie Davies
Press, Reviews and Accolades for avant garde jazz drummer Billie Davies
BILLIE DAVIES is a recipient of the 2013 23rd Annual Los Angeles, California LA Music Awards
"JAZZ ARTIST" Award. 11/14/2013.
BILLIE DAVIES is a recipient of the 2013 23rd Annual Los Angeles, California LA Music Awards
"JAZZ ARTIST" Award. 11/14/2013.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Something Else! Reviews: Billie Davies – 12 Volt (2013) Reviewed by S. Victor Aaron.
Jazz, Uncategorized — October 2, 2013 at 9:00 am
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. Visit Billie Davies’ website for more info.
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. Visit Billie Davies’ website for more info.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
BILLIE DAVIES - 2013 Los Angeles Music Awards Nominee for "JAZZ ARTIST OF THE YEAR"
Billie and Mike Davies are very excited to let you know that...
The 23rd Annual Los Angeles Music Awards has nominated BILLIE DAVIES as "JAZZ ARTIST OF THE YEAR" for 2013.
1. Online: On-line voting system at 99 cents per vote, you can buy however many votes you want... http://www.lamusicawards.net/nominees.html.
2. Paper Ballot Voting: Thursday, September 26th, 2013
Event: The 23rd Annual Los Angeles Music Awards Nominee Night Press Event
Date: Thursday, September 26th, 2013
Venue: The Whisky A Go-Go: 8901 Sunset Bl. West Hollywood
Doors Open: 6:30 pm
Panel Discussion: 7:10 to 7:40
Sound bytes for Voting Process Begins @ : 7:45
Performers: 10 sponsored musical acts.
Media Coverage: Liz at emrmedia.com has confirmed well over a dozen members of the international press will be covering your appearance at this event. These include press photo agencies and both local and national paparazzi, print publications, radio and television.
Sponsors: Music Connection Magazine, Shhh! Media, Konocti Harbor & Resort, Impact Promotions, jdmrubbings.com. Aaron Avenue Records, Soundcheck International, Spyder Pop Records, RainboRecords.com, Shelter Hotels.
Format: Over 140 nominees receive 30 second sound bytes played from ALL artists and bands from 40 ballot categories. A paper balloting system is used for this event. The combined fan bases of every nominee is represented at this event. Every paper ballot vote is counted and tallied.
Panelists: Eric Bettelli: Music Connection Magazine Publisher, Brad Mercer: On Air Rock Radio Personality, Liz from EMR Media and Music Industry luminary Steve Resnik.
Billie Davies
~ A Jazz Musician ~
Los Angeles, CA
Tel: (+1) 310.467.2061
Email: Billie@BillieDavies.com
Booking:
Price Rubin & Partners: 1-866-774-7824 | 310-254-7149 / L.A. | 415-504-3654 / S.F.
Email: jp@pricerubin.com | mp@pricerubin.com
Website: http://www.pricerubin.com
Billie Davies on the Web:
Her website: http://www.BillieDavies.com
Her PRK for "all about Love": http://karionpresskits.com/billiedavies/index.html
Her Press Kit for "Billie Davies": http://www.reverbnation.com/rpk/billiedavies
Her blog: http://BillieDavies.blogspot.com
Like her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BillieDaviesJazz
Follow her on Twitter: @BillieDavies
Fan her on AllAboutJazz: http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=43171
Buy Billie Davies Music:
at CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thebilliedaviestrio
on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-about-love-feat.-tom-bone/id532658118
at Reverbnation: http://www.Reverbnation.com/BillieDavies
~ A Jazz Musician ~
Los Angeles, CA
Tel: (+1) 310.467.2061
Email: Billie@BillieDavies.com
Booking:
Price Rubin & Partners: 1-866-774-7824 | 310-254-7149 / L.A. | 415-504-3654 / S.F.
Email: jp@pricerubin.com | mp@pricerubin.com
Website: http://www.pricerubin.com
Billie Davies on the Web:
Her website: http://www.BillieDavies.com
Her PRK for "all about Love": http://karionpresskits.com/billiedavies/index.html
Her Press Kit for "Billie Davies": http://www.reverbnation.com/rpk/billiedavies
Her blog: http://BillieDavies.blogspot.com
Like her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BillieDaviesJazz
Follow her on Twitter: @BillieDavies
Fan her on AllAboutJazz: http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=43171
Buy Billie Davies Music:
at CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thebilliedaviestrio
on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-about-love-feat.-tom-bone/id532658118
at Reverbnation: http://www.Reverbnation.com/BillieDavies
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