Jazz Articles about Damani Butler

About Damani Butler

Album Review

Billie Davies: 2455 (Music for the Future)

Read "2455 (Music for the Future)" reviewed by Max Kutner

by Max Kutner
February 3, 2026

2455: Music for the Future features the telekinetic duo of drummer/percussionist Billie Davies and trumpeter Branden James Lewis presenting a series of dreamlike improvisations united under Davies' concept of No Boundaries, Music for the 24th Century. Davies' vision and designs allow the music to shape-shift and wander at whim between dub, ambient, free jazz, musique concrète, and more. By allowing for fluid stylistic ambiguity and employing a bevy of processed sounds in their arsenal--extensive synth layering and loops, for example--the ...

Album Review

Billie Davies: Whadeva (Live at Dangerous Art Studios February 13, 2020)

Read "Whadeva (Live at Dangerous Art Studios February 13, 2020)" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
August 15, 2020

When you think of the music of New Orleans, chances are you're not imagining anything like Whadeva--semi-avant-garde improvisation with light electronics is hardly the first association that comes to anyone's mind. Nonetheless the Big Easy's personality is still clear through this freewheeling EP, which was knocked out in a Ninth Ward studio in one free-spirited day. The trio of players are all based in the city, if not lifelong natives, and they like to channel its spirit of celebration and ...