Billie Davies Trio: Perspectives II By Jerome Wilson
Billie Davies Trio: Perspectives II By JEROME WILSON December 17, 2018 The spiritual jazz tradition, as exemplified by John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, has been having a resurgence over the past few years in places like Los Angeles and Great Britain. Now here is evidence that some musicians in New Orleans are going down that path as well. Billie Davies is a drummer from Belgium who now lives and works in the Big Easy and this recording, available only in download form, captures a live performance of her trio, plus added guests, creating over an hour of heady, uplifting music. Most tracks build slowly. "Nature" starts with lonely flute trills by Ari Kohn and sparse electric piano notes from Evan Oberla that slowly coalesce into a wavy tropical rhythm. Craggy, harp-like piano and the soothing voices of Allie Porter and Iris P weave in and out of each other while Davies and bassist Oliver Watkinson maintain a light, rolling undercurrent that keeps the musi...
