Billie Davies - A Nu Experience at Music At The Mint, May 19. Musicians: Billie Davies, Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson, Iris Poree, - order tickets, find location and other info. Never miss another jazz concert in New Orleans again!
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience at Music At The Mint, May 19
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience at Music At The Mint, May 19:
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience at Music At The Mint, May 19. Musicians: Billie Davies, Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson, Iris Poree, - order tickets, find location and other info. Never miss another jazz concert in New Orleans again!
Billie Davies - A Nu Experience at Music At The Mint, May 19. Musicians: Billie Davies, Evan Oberla, Oliver Watkinson, Iris Poree, - order tickets, find location and other info. Never miss another jazz concert in New Orleans again!
Sunday, April 23, 2017
On Hollywood Boulevard | BILLIE DAVIES
On Hollywood Boulevard | BILLIE DAVIES
!!! AVAILABLE ON BANDCAMP !!!
On Hollywood Boulevard
by BILLIE DAVIES
- Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Bonus items include: One Sheet, Press Release, All CD production photos, CD promo label, Show posters, On Hollywood Boulevard song lyrics.$9 USD or more
Full Digital Discography
Get all 4 BILLIE DAVIES releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of On Hollywood Boulevard, Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon, 12 VOLT, and all about Love..$30.60 USD or more(15% OFF)
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Billie Davies | On Hollywood Boulevard | CD Baby Music Store
"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." Bobby Reed - DownBeat Magazine
all tied together with an improviser's approach." Bobby Reed - DownBeat Magazine
"Clearly Billie Davies and A Nu Experience are a class act, one full of bold inventive and inspired interplay. Let us hope "On Hollywood Boulevard" won't be their only project together, and that there will be more adventurous music to come."
Sacha O'Grady - All About Jazz
Sacha O'Grady - All About Jazz
Preview & Get the new album by Billie Davies below:
Billie Davies | On Hollywood Boulevard | CD Baby Music Store
Thursday, February 9, 2017
BILLIE DAVIES - A NU EXPERIENCE -On Hollywood Boulevard - Jazz Views
Corrected link to a beautiful review of #OnHollywoodBoulevard on Jazz Views.
#JazzBuzz #Jazz
http://www.jazzviews.net/billie-davies---a-nu-experience--on-hollywood-boulevard.html
BILLIE DAVIES - A NU EXPERIENCE -On Hollywood Boulevard - Jazz Views
#JazzBuzz #Jazz
http://www.jazzviews.net/billie-davies---a-nu-experience--on-hollywood-boulevard.html
BILLIE DAVIES - A NU EXPERIENCE -On Hollywood Boulevard
Self Release
Billie Davies: electronic drums; IRIS P: vocals; Oliver Watkinson: electric bass; Evan Oberla: keyboards, synth, trombone.
Recorded New Orleans, September 26, 2016
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. Interestingly, the approach taken to recording was similar to that of her ‘Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moon’ CD; the music is recorded in front of a small, live audience in a single take with images relating to the music projected behind the band. This captures an exciting, slightly edge-of-the-seat performance that conveys the sense of improvisation while maintaining a well-balanced interplay between the artists.
The lyrics, written by Davies, reminisce on her time living on Hollywood Boulevard, and have that blend of story-telling and heartfelt poetry that you find in, say, Joni Mitchell. During this time (in 2013), Davies was awarded the Los Angeles Music Awards Jazz Musician of the Year, and moved to New Orleans the following year. The delivery of the lyrics by IRIS P (Catherine Poree) is beautifully jazzy, and she sings soulfully across the rhythm in an understated way that gives a sardonic edge to some of the stories and memories and a bittersweet longing to others. This could easily have been a duet between IRIS P’s singing and the swing of Davies’ drumming. Davies relishes the electronic drum kit, moving from snare and toms to harsher metallic sounds, and uses it creatively to add texture to the vocals. You can almost get the stories from the drumming alone. The playing of Watkinson and Oberla, who have played and recorded regularly with Davies over the past few years, bring a driving edge to the music and work superbly off the mood of the lyrics and the subtle shifts in emphasis that Davies gives from her drum seat. 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.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Self Release
Billie Davies: electronic drums; IRIS P: vocals; Oliver Watkinson: electric bass; Evan Oberla: keyboards, synth, trombone.
Recorded New Orleans, September 26, 2016
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. Interestingly, the approach taken to recording was similar to that of her ‘Hand in Hand in the Hand of the Moon’ CD; the music is recorded in front of a small, live audience in a single take with images relating to the music projected behind the band. This captures an exciting, slightly edge-of-the-seat performance that conveys the sense of improvisation while maintaining a well-balanced interplay between the artists.
The lyrics, written by Davies, reminisce on her time living on Hollywood Boulevard, and have that blend of story-telling and heartfelt poetry that you find in, say, Joni Mitchell. During this time (in 2013), Davies was awarded the Los Angeles Music Awards Jazz Musician of the Year, and moved to New Orleans the following year. The delivery of the lyrics by IRIS P (Catherine Poree) is beautifully jazzy, and she sings soulfully across the rhythm in an understated way that gives a sardonic edge to some of the stories and memories and a bittersweet longing to others. This could easily have been a duet between IRIS P’s singing and the swing of Davies’ drumming. Davies relishes the electronic drum kit, moving from snare and toms to harsher metallic sounds, and uses it creatively to add texture to the vocals. You can almost get the stories from the drumming alone. The playing of Watkinson and Oberla, who have played and recorded regularly with Davies over the past few years, bring a driving edge to the music and work superbly off the mood of the lyrics and the subtle shifts in emphasis that Davies gives from her drum seat. 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.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Billie Davies, "A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard" (Independent) - OffBeat Magazine
Billie Davies, "A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard" (Independent) - OffBeat Magazine
OffBeat Magazine
Billie Davies, “A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard” (Independent)
By Robert Fontenot
Published: February 08, 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, largely thanks to the cool glissandos and lonely brass of keyboardist Evan Oberla and the kind of youthful energy you need for this sort of piece: new vocalist IRIS P, who brings some R&B flair to tracks like “Jacaranda” and “Yellow Sunshine” (which is not the kind of nature you’re thinking of, maybe). Meanwhile, Billie as usual plays counterpoint, creating the menace simmering under the surface naiveté that makes all that ambition seem weighted down, if not doomed, by reality. The set’s only major flaw is her decision to use electronic drums on half the album, augmenting and sometimes replacing her usual setup entirely; they just don’t have the expressiveness of a trap kit, turning Billie’s wise Greek chorus into a drunken party crasher. Ironically, a little more traditionalist grounding is just what the album and its subjects need most.
~Robert Fontenot, OffBeat Magazine
OffBeat Magazine
Billie Davies, “A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard” (Independent)
By Robert Fontenot
Published: February 08, 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, largely thanks to the cool glissandos and lonely brass of keyboardist Evan Oberla and the kind of youthful energy you need for this sort of piece: new vocalist IRIS P, who brings some R&B flair to tracks like “Jacaranda” and “Yellow Sunshine” (which is not the kind of nature you’re thinking of, maybe). Meanwhile, Billie as usual plays counterpoint, creating the menace simmering under the surface naiveté that makes all that ambition seem weighted down, if not doomed, by reality. The set’s only major flaw is her decision to use electronic drums on half the album, augmenting and sometimes replacing her usual setup entirely; they just don’t have the expressiveness of a trap kit, turning Billie’s wise Greek chorus into a drunken party crasher. Ironically, a little more traditionalist grounding is just what the album and its subjects need most.
~Robert Fontenot, OffBeat Magazine
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)