Brittany Davis Made an Album in 2 Days. Its Sonic Improvisations Linger Far Longer

So much of the way we present ourselves online, choose what movie to watch, or figure out which recipe to make for dinner seems heavily curated. Whether it's by a corporate algorithm or intense self-surveillance, the serendipity of making unexpected connections or truly being in the moment feels further out of reach in our increasingly digital lives.

That's why Seattle-based musician Brittany Davis' latest album, Black Thunder, is such a delicious gift. Made over the course of two days with Davis on the keys and vocals, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and D'Vonne Lewis on drums, the record is a beautiful exercise of creating in the moment. Neither the musical content nor the lyrics were written beforehand: All 17 tracks were improvised by the trio, who barely knew one another before entering the studio. 

"When you're doing this kind of work, you're folding. You're saying, 'I'm not a star. I might just be the light to the star.' Hell, I could be a comet for one song, maybe for another song, the whole damn planet," Davis said of the process in a recent phone interview. "You're bringing yourself to life in different ways when you do an improv album, versus bringing yourself to life in a curated way."

Coming off their critically acclaimed debut album, Image Issues, from last year, Davis says they didn't have too many expectations when they entered the studio with Lewis and Flory-Barnes: It was supposed to be a simple buddy jam. But the two-day session ended up being what Davis described as a birthing process, a baby that soon became Black Thunder. As someone who has been blind since birth, Davis, who grew up in the South End, says they considered the barriers they've faced navigating a visual society, along with body image and racism, when going into the studio. 

"I didn't realize that my mind was going to ascend to such heights. I didn't realize my ear was going to be stretched so far. I did not anticipate the fullness of the volume of this body of work. I didn't know that it was going to be so full of sonic matter. I just came to the studio, ready to work."

Even the song order embodies the record's ethos of improvisation. Rather than painstakingly stitching the track list together, Davis decided to present the songs in alphabetical order as they appeared in the Dropbox folder — minimal curation. They say they drew inspiration from the likes of Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, and Kendrick Lamar. And, indeed, the revelatory vocal textures of Simone, the Afro-mindedness of Kuti, and the poetic storytelling of Lamar are all present throughout the album.

The Black Thunder opener "All You Get" starts while Davis moans, snaps, and sings of those who get the short end of the stick, all over Flory-Barnes' steady bass and Lewis' snare cadence. Through the use of a rain stick softly trilling in the background (one of the few instruments added in post-production), the title track "Black Thunder" evokes a summer night as a thunderstorm approaches.

"Mirrors" is a melancholic, lounge-y treatise on self-perception, and on "Sarah's Song," Davis tells the story of an abused enslaved woman named Sarah who had 24 children, as the clinking of chains floats over the melody. The background vocals they recorded for that track comprise the incantory vocalizations on the numbered "Ancestor" interludes between every track. The songs regularly stretch out to be six minutes long, reflecting their improvisational nature and really marinating in the trio's musical harmony.

A real stunner arrives in "Amid the Blackout of the Night," where Davis deconstructs the beauty of the night sky over sorrowful piano. "I always wondered how the stars would shine if they were visible to me," they croon. Davis says the song came from their experience of being a blind person trying to make sense of things in a visual context. 

"My whole life, I'm hearing visual contexted language. I'm hearing metaphors that have to do with the stars twinkling in somebody's eyes, or the way that the stars shine," Davis said. "So when I say, 'I wonder how the stars would shout if they were visible to me,' I wonder what it would be like to be able to put things in my own visual context, instead of taking other people's word."

They continued: "I'm pondering the ways in which I can visualize something that I can never see. And it's almost like that thing you do when you're a kid and you go, 'What would it be like to be in space?' You're never going to be there, but at least you're having fun, imagining yourself for just a second without gravity pulling you down."

That's an apt lens through which to experience Black Thunder, a space of improvisation and depth that keenly reflects Davis' astute and loving perspective of our world. 

Brittany Davis will play at Rainier Square on Aug. 27 from 12–2:30 p.m. RSVP here to get your free tickets.