Hello and welcome!
This week I’m kicking off a multi-part series that highlights and examines eight of my favorite modern jazz albums. These are the stand-outs, the ones that I wish I could hear again for the first time, the absolutely unskippable records. First up, and celebrating its one-year anniversary this week is Brittany Davis’ Black Thunder.
Black Thunder features Evan Flory-Barnes on bass and D’Vonne Lewis behind the kit, while Davis plays piano and adds a poetic lyricism to the tracks. Starting off the album, and recurring throughout the album, are ancestral interludes that evoke the feeling of a heartfelt conversation or joyous celebration.
“All You Get” begins with a twinkle from Davis’s keys before the bass and drums settle into a driving rhythm as the lyrics begin to flow. That’s the first (and last) we hear of the piano until nearly 3 minutes in, when Davis accentuates an “That’s All You Get!” with a flourish, but then the instrumentation drops back down to just the bass and drum. Your patience pays off though, as the piano livens up and the bass intensifies building to a fury from Flory-Barnes. The ebbs and flows in this track set the tone for the album in a way that make this an incredibly engaging record.
The opening of “Amid the Blackout of the Night” has a haunting loneliness as Lewis’ cymbals accompany the hypnotic beat of the bass and keys. Davis has been blind since birth, and the storytelling through her music is truly unmatched with lyrics like:
“Someone tell me how beautiful it is
to see the stars shining bright in the sky.
Even the sun, so much fun,
but I’ve never seen its glow,
and I don’t even know if it has a glow.
Maybe it just beams,
maybe it screams light,
or maybe it streams light,
or maybe it green light,
but they all say it’s yellow,
what a bright little fellow.
The sun, the sun, the sun, the sun,
when the morning comes,
the birds in the sky,
I hear them, but I don’t see.
Do they look like what they look like to me?
They just tweedle-deedle-dee,
but I never see ‘em fly.
And sometimes I wonder
if there’s really a sky.”
The album’s title track, “Black Thunder”, builds to an undeniably chill-inducing anthem, once again paying homage to Davis’ ancestry, followed by the track “Change Me,” which is only matched in it’s vulnerability, by it’s funkiness. The track catalogs Davis’ insecurities, reciting the line “Everything that a girl don’t want to be, it seems that you have issued it out to me.” Just over halfway through the song, the piano starts hitting on the upbeat creating a reggae adjacent vibe, before the track fades out into a whisper.
The entire album is improvised, and the track “Girl (Don’t You Know)” originally began as a six-minute spoken word freestyle, before producer Josh Evans “sliced apart, rebuilt, and folded the piece back on top of itself in the editing room.” The tension that builds during “Girl (Don’t You Know)” dissolves and resolves throughout “Girl (Now We’re the Same).”
“Mirrors” is an introspective and devastatingly emotional ballad and in “Sarah’s Song,” Davis channels an enslaved ancestor as she recounts the unimaginable horrors of history and the brutal abuses suffered by black women.
Closing things out is “Sun and Moon,” which was also the first single I heard off this album. It was love at first listen and Black Thunder has become an instant classic in my eyes. The piano/bass/drum trio is fully locked in on this final track and Davis’ lyrical performance leaves me wanting more each and every time I reach the end of the album.
Black Thunder was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle Washington and was released on June 13, 2025 by Loosegroove Records.1
Also check out Joel's Journeys in Jazz, Joel wrote about Black Thunder back in March, and Amplify has become one of favorite weekly reads.
Tune in on Shady Pines Radio this Friday, June 19th, for my Juneteenth Celebration broadcast featuring Brittany Davis’ Black Thunder, a brand new single from Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as tracks from Isaiah Collier, Idris Ackamoor, Jaleel Shaw, Ambrose Akimusire, Brandee Younger, Brian Jackson, James Brandon Lewis and more!
If you missed this week’s Freeform Portland broadcast, catch the full episode from the 15th below and follow along with the corresponding New Music Monday playlist, updated and refreshed every two weeks.
This week’s show (and playlist) featured LOX, Red Kite, Aurora Clara, Devin Daniels, Christian Dillingham, PSOAS, Ori Kaplan, Akusmi, I Am An Instrument, Ezra Collective, Play Time, Błoto, Asa Orbison, Lakecia Benjamin and BendreTheGiant.
Upcoming Broadcast Schedule
Shady Pines Radio: Friday’s 10am-Noon PT | Freeform Portland: Alt Mondays Noon-2pm PT
6/19 - Shady Pines Radio | Juneteenth Celebration
6/26 - Shady Pines Radio | Pride Month Special
6/29 - Freeform Portland Radio | New Music Monday #7
7/3 - Shady Pines Radio | The Rhythm of Resistance
Recently Archived Episodes
6/12 - Shady Pines Radio | Global Jazz Fusion
6/15 - Freeform Portland Radio | New Music Monday #6
…see more
Tidal | Qobuz |Apple Music | Spotify
Tidal | Qobuz |Apple Music | Spotify
Thanks for reading and listening!
Loosegroove Records was founded by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.