“a towering achievement and a visionary musical statement” – AllMusic
2025’s Black Thunder is the dazzling, fully improvised, fully realized new album by Seattle-based musician, producer, and engineer Brittany Davis. This album features the artist on keys and vocals, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and D’Vonne Lewis on drums. It 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. They recorded the entire album over two days in the studio. The pressure-cooker environment removed any 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.
“draws on Davis’ organic connection to spirit, song and soul” – DownBeat
“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,” producer Josh Evans (Pearl Jam) 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.
Black Thunder may contain a throng of voices, but they coalesce into one. Here is 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.
Recommended for fans of Nina Simone, Isaiah Collier, Kamasi Washington and Roberta Flack.
