Home » Jazz Musicians » Evan Oberla

Evan Oberla

Evan Oberla - Trombone/Keys/Guitar/Voice

Evan Oberla is an artist, musician & composer based in New Orleans with a naturally dynamic sound arriving at an intersection between catchy melodious themes and instantaneous adventurous improvisation, all the while maintaining a fresh soulful groove. Finding expansion in the slightest of movements, Evan thrives in inviting the listener along a journey of rhythmic and harmonic expression. This trombonist, multi-instrumentalist, & singer/songwriter is a naturally gifted performer who has delved into many varied genres in his career, honing a musical soup of influences into a style at once familiar to the ear yet uniquely his own.

After graduating with a degree in jazz trombone performance from the Ohio State University and getting his start in nightclubs, Evan has spent the better half of his career traversing the country playing shows & festivals, recording & collaborating, and forging his own path in the music world.

He has released a handful of albums & EP’s of original music with various outfits over the years, including Eyope, EOP, RFG Quintet and now under his own name, with his cast of bandmates taking on the moniker of the GROW.

Evan's latest album is Canal Street Revolution, a double LP of compositions based on first person historical recountings of the New Orleans' 1960s Civil Rights movement and beyond.

Along with being an active member of Flow Tribe and the New Orleans scene; a short list of artists and bands he has shared the stage, the road, and recording studio with include O.A.R., Allen Stone, Elle King, Brass Lightning, Miss Mojo, Mike Dillon, Theo Katzman, Swatkins, Kamasi Washington, Wyclef Jean, Bernhoft, Sexual Thunder!, Eric Krasno, Spoon, Rashawn Ross, Jeff Coffin, Deltaphonic, Sam Price, Burris, Magnetic Ear, Lena Prima, Afghan Whigs, Jamison Ross, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Billie Davies, Iris P, Andrew McMahon, Kelly James, Kumasi, Way Yes, Ill Poetic, Mojoflo, G. Finesse, Columbus Jazz Orchestra, Beethoven Found Philharmonic, Dierks Bentley, Cris Cab, Soja, Walk the Moon and many more.

"Music never stops, it only appears in our awareness. All the music that ever was exists now. It is the musician's job to tune into the universe and become a vessel for the music of the moment." -

Gear

Evan is endorsed by BAC horns & AMT microphones.


Tags

3
Album Review

Billie Davies: Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz)

Read "Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz)" reviewed by La-Faithia White


Retrospectives (In The Key of Jazz) showcases a body of work by drummer Billie Davies that was created over a six year period. The musicians answered her call, recording albums and performing on her acoustic or hybrid drum set from 2012 to 2018. These pieces of music have never been released and are all improvisations that happened during rehearsals and/or performances in between or leading up to her album projects in Hollywood and New Orleans. “Hollywood Boulevard From ...

5
Album Review

Billie Davies: On Hollywood Boulevard - Live at The Mint in New Orleans

Read "On Hollywood Boulevard - Live at The Mint in New Orleans" reviewed by La-Faithia White


The original recording of On Hollywood Boulevard took place in 2016. The inspiration comes from drummer Billie Davies personal experience of living at the historic Hillview Apartments on Hollywood Boulevard in 2009. Hillview Apartments, a hotspot during the silent film era, were considered Hollywood's first artist high-rise. Davies remembers witnessing it all, the tourist traps, the Hollywood legends and heroes' reverence, the young artist communities from painters to musicians to photographers, videographers and writers aspiring to become accomplished and successful. ...

2
Album Review

Billie Davies Trio: Perspectives II

Read "Perspectives II" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


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, ...

4
Album Review

Billie Davies: On Hollywood Boulevard

Read "On Hollywood Boulevard" reviewed by Budd Kopman


There could not be much more of a musical, emotional or just vibe difference than that between drummer Billie Davies' latest album On Hollywood Boulevard and her previous project, Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon. However, although they inhabit completely different worlds, both projects had a very long gestation and originate in Davies' reactions to specific events in her life, the latter to her interaction with painter Serge Vandercam, while the former to living in ...

3
Album Review

Billie Davies - A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard

Read "On Hollywood Boulevard" reviewed by Sacha O'Grady


From Buddy Rich to Billy Cobham, jazz drumming (as opposed to pop-rock) has been a predominately masculine affair, and something which perhaps remains so even to this day -which isn't to say that women are excluded from the club entirely. Drummer Billie Davies began her career in Europe, performing extensively across the continent, before immigrating to America, until eventually she made her way to New Orleans in 2014, teaming up with IRIS P (vocals), Evan Oberla (electric piano, ...

11
Album Review

Billie Davies: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon

Read "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" reviewed by Budd Kopman


Free drummer Billie Davies calls Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon a symphony, which implies composition, larger planned structures, etc. Nothing like that is here, as the music was improvised and recorded in one session. However, this music is not just a free session of highly intuitive and sensitive players; it has a reason for being, and that reason is the intersection of the life paths of two artists working in different media -Davies, a musician and ...

8
Album Review

Billie Davies: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon

Read "Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The Moon is a heartfelt homage to the artist Serge Vandercam (1924-2005) whose paintings, depicted on the inside CD cover, originally inspired this suite of collaborative improvisations. Initially the inspiration drew from a period of three days of the full moon in 1995 when the artist was influenced by the drummer's playing. For this recording in 2015, following a 20 year gestation period, the painting corresponding to each title was hanging on a ...

Read more articles

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Retrospectives (In...

Self Produced
2025

buy

Canal Street...

EatGrow Music
2025

buy

Good Hang

1718 Records LLC
2025

buy

On Hollywood...

Self Produced
2024

buy

ART 4 ALL

EatGrow Music
2023

buy

JOBIM

Independent
2019

buy

Lover, You Should Have Come Over

From: Good Hang
By Evan Oberla

Improvisationality

From: Retrospectives (In The Key Of...
By Evan Oberla

Do Do Kindje Doo

From: Retrospectives (In The Key Of...
By Evan Oberla

Palm Trees

From: On Hollywood Boulevard - Live...
By Evan Oberla

Jacaranda

From: On Hollywood Boulevard - Live...
By Evan Oberla

Jacaranda (Live at The Mint in New Orleans)

From: On Hollywood Boulevard - Live...
By Evan Oberla

Jacaranda (Live at The Mint in New Orleans)

From: On Hollywood Boulevard - Live...
By Evan Oberla

Art

From: Perspectives
By Evan Oberla

Palm Trees

From: On Hollywood Boulevard
By Evan Oberla

The Girl In The Window

From: On Hollywood Boulevard
By Evan Oberla

v. The Shark In The Hand

From: Hand In Hand In The Hand Of The...
By Evan Oberla

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.