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Oliver Watkinson

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Oliver Watkinson - Electric & Upright Bass. Born in Brunswick Maine, Oliver began studying music at the age of five. He attended college in Boston at the New England Conservatory, where he had the opportunity to study upright jazz bass and perform with greats such as Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, Jason Moran, Cecil McBee, and many more. In 2014, Oliver moved to New Orleans and began performing with BILLIE DAVIES in 2015, Gandhi Castle, Laelume, and various street bands. He has taught and performed all over the United States, as well as Central America and Canada.

Billie Davies: Retrospectives (In The Key Of Jazz)

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

by La-Faithia White
August 23, 2025

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 ...

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

by La-Faithia White
March 31, 2025

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. ...

Album Review

Billie Davies Trio: Perspectives II

Read "Perspectives II" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

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, ...

Album Review

Billie Davies: On Hollywood Boulevard

Read "On Hollywood Boulevard" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 19, 2017

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 ...

Album Review

Billie Davies - A Nu Experience: On Hollywood Boulevard

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

by Sacha O'Grady
December 6, 2016

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, ...