Brittany Davis - Black Thunder

Schedule

Thu, 04 Dec, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

2033 6th Ave, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98121 | Seattle, WA

Advertisement
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley welcomes Seattle’s own rising star Brittany Davis (piano and vocals) for one night only performing her Black Thunder project with Seattle jazzmen Evan Flory-Barnes (bass) and D’Vonne Lewis (drums). Show time Thursday at 7:30pm. Doors open at 6:00pm.
ARTIST INFO
Black Thunder is the dazzling, fully improvised, fully realized new album by Seattle-based musician, producer, and engineer Brittany Davis. Featuring the artist on keys and vocals, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and D’Vonne Lewis on drums, the Josh Evans-produced offering recalls artists like Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in its immersive, incantatory spirit.
The trio — who barely knew each other previously — extemporized Black Thunder in a surge of interactive creativity across two days in the studio. The pressure-cooker environment did away with overthinking and brought each musician’s A-game. Steeped in Black and Afrocentric cultural influences, this is Davis’s most poignant and cathartic work to date.
“Brittany, Evan, and D’Vonne have, in some way, been preparing for this recording all their lives. Honing their instrumental craft and ability, of course — but more importantly, preparing their ears, emotions, and egos to be fully present and create absolutely in the moment,” Evans says. “To listen deeply and respond empathetically. To speak with uncomfortable honesty. To listen, and be vulnerable.”
Black Thunder marks a shift away from the drum machines and programmed keys of her previous album, 2024’s Image Issues. This is a fully live, organic performance, one that showcases her stylistic maturation and the breadth of her versatility.
In the opening piece, “All You Get,” Davis introduces herself on the piano with a pensive, one-note octave rhythm; Flory-Barnes joins them with a hypnotic pulse. Lewis completes the triangulation with a shaker, then drums. “The groove is locked in,” Evans says with a smile. “The ceremony has begun.”
At the outset, Davis scats a melodic phrase. But moans, chants, claps, and snaps bring the group heads somewhere else entirely — somewhere deep-set, primed for catharsis. To the notion that “You get what you get/ And don’t throw a fit,” Davis hurls, “I’ll show you what I get/ I’ll show you I’ve evolved past all yours— / My evolution has not become flat!”
“She is channeling something or someone else,” the producer adds. “Voices, spirits, the divine — something bigger than the room itself. Something more than just the three musicians playing — something older, something deeper.”
“So many things I’ve never seen / but I’ve touched it all, it seems,” Davis sings in “Amid the Blackout of the Night.” She’s never seen the stars; she’s never seen the sun nor moon; she’s never seen the night. “But how can she somehow still perfectly capture that feeling of looking up into the night sky?” Evans says. “Is there more to seeing than just sight?”
From celestial concerns, Davis pivots to terra firma: the swaggering title track, “Black Thunder,” evokes soil, rain, mountaintops, earthquakes. On “Change Me,” Davis and Flory-Barnes hot-potato a fragmented scale between piano and bass: “Can’t be like this/ Too Black, too fat, and blind all at the same time,” sings a self-disassembling Davis.
“Brit is vulnerable and flawed, and maybe tired of being some kind of griot or action hero,” Evans says. “The stars are beautiful, but sometimes Brit just wants to be skinny and ‘attractive.’ It takes bravery to share that.”
As with the rest of Black Thunder, the spoken-word “Girl (Don’t You Know)” was improvised — albeit massaged and collaged with studio trickery. “It started out as a six-minute, spoken-word freestyle; Brit and I took that piece, chopped it up, and layered it upon itself,” Evans says. The anxious dance of “Girl (Now We’re the Same)” settles into a crepuscular mood.
Within the freestyling “Mirrors,” Davis pits their self-perception against that from outside. “Sarah’s Song” channels an enslaved woman — abused, ignored, forgotten, who had 24 children. The sounds of chains and padlocks evoke the weight of ancestral pain.
After the light-and-dark, push-and-pull “Sun and Moon,” Black Thunder concludes with “…Ancestors.” Apropos to the title, “Brit told me that at different times she felt like the voices of their ancestors were speaking through her,” Evans remembers. “We decided to summon and channel these voices, to connect and comment on the songs, almost like a Greek choir.”
Black Thunder may contain a throng of voices, but they coalesce into one — that of a sui generis artist charting a course all her own. By bulldozing easy narratives and accessing the realm of pure feeling, Davis’ latest missive is a creative thunderclap that will be impossible to unhear.
Advertisement

Where is it happening?

2033 6th Ave, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98121

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Icon
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Dimitriou's Jazz Alley

Host or Publisher Dimitriou's Jazz Alley

Ask AI if this event suits you:

Discover More Events in Seattle

Vitriol
Thu, 04 Dec at 07:00 pm Vitriol

Substation

Neuroscience, AI and Society: Cory Doctorow
Thu, 04 Dec at 07:00 pm Neuroscience, AI and Society: Cory Doctorow

Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center

ART LITERARY-ART
Bandit Theater Presents: The Hot Hot Suggie Show
Thu, 04 Dec at 07:00 pm Bandit Theater Presents: The Hot Hot Suggie Show

Seattle Open Arts Place (formerly known as 18th & Union)

WORKSHOPS COMEDY
The Bullitt Lecture in American History presents Eve L. Ewing
Thu, 04 Dec at 07:00 pm The Bullitt Lecture in American History presents Eve L. Ewing

Seattle Public Library-Central Library

ART LITERARY-ART
An Evening with The Mountain Goats
Thu, 04 Dec at 08:00 pm An Evening with The Mountain Goats

Neptune Theatre

ART THEATRE
Andy Bell at Showbox at the Market
Thu, 04 Dec Andy Bell at Showbox at the Market

Showbox at the Market

CALENDAR
Hobo Johnson at The Crocodile
Thu, 04 Dec at 08:00 pm Hobo Johnson at The Crocodile

The Crocodile

TRIPS-ADVENTURES
Open Mic ~ Music ~ Poetry ~ Hip Hop ~ Jazz ~ Vendors Needed Wanted
Wed, 05 Feb at 05:00 pm Open Mic ~ Music ~ Poetry ~ Hip Hop ~ Jazz ~ Vendors Needed Wanted

Seattle

ENTERTAINMENT OPEN-MIC
Tatiana Eva-Marie & The Avalon Jazz Band
Tue, 21 Oct at 07:30 pm Tatiana Eva-Marie & The Avalon Jazz Band

2033 6th Ave, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98121

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Wed, 22 Oct at 07:30 pm Tatiana Eva-Marie in Seattle

Jazz Alley

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
NonSeq: Cat Toren's Human Kind + Every Shade of Green
Thu, 23 Oct at 08:00 pm NonSeq: Cat Toren's Human Kind + Every Shade of Green

Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Comfort Food
Thu, 23 Oct at 10:00 pm Comfort Food

Sea Monster Lounge

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Fri, 24 Oct at 07:00 pm Arooj Aftab in Seattle

Earshot Jazz

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Makaya McCraven
Sat, 25 Oct at 04:00 pm Makaya McCraven

Madame Lou's

CONTESTS TRIPS-ADVENTURES
Earshot Jazz presents: KASSA OVERALL x ALUNE WADE
Sat, 25 Oct at 07:00 pm Earshot Jazz presents: KASSA OVERALL x ALUNE WADE

Hidden Hall

ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC
Mid Century Modern presents "Biorhythms" Album Release
Sat, 25 Oct at 07:30 pm Mid Century Modern presents "Biorhythms" Album Release

Georgetown Steam Plant

ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC
Makaya McCraven in Seattle
Sun, 26 Oct at 06:00 pm Makaya McCraven in Seattle

Madame Lou's

ART LIVE-MUSIC
Makaya McCraven | Earshot Jazz Festival & KNKX Presents
Sun, 26 Oct at 06:00 pm Makaya McCraven | Earshot Jazz Festival & KNKX Presents

Madame Lou's

FESTIVALS MUSIC
Makaya McCraven in Seattle
Sun, 26 Oct at 09:30 pm Makaya McCraven in Seattle

Madame Lou's

CONCERTS MUSIC

What's Happening Next in Seattle?

Discover Seattle Events