The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis.
Her new album, Portals, Volume 2 : Returning – released 20 September via Intakt Records – features her quintet in trumpeter Marquis Hill, pianist Julian Shore, bassist Chris Tordini, and drummer Allan Mednard. Singers and spoken word artists Jen Shyu, Nappy Nina, Julia Easterlin, and Alexa Barchini also appear. Links to purchase Portals, Volume 2, and to Davis’s website, can be found at the end of this article.
Caroline Davis calls her new record “a really great way for me to connect with my ancestors… the idea of that constant cycle of grief, continuing on, is really intense for me.”
Any experience of grief is a cycle. Two lost loved ones, in short order, would typify such: specifically, Davis’s suddenly, recently departed father, who directly informed 2021’s Portals, Volume 1: Mourning, as well as her grandmother, Joan “Lady” Anson-Weber, a direct inspiration who passed away in 2010.
“[This] feels like a project that will keep going throughout my years of performing and composing,” Davis said in press materials of Portals, citing the brutal fractal of loss. “Recording albums for people I knew in this realm is a deeply emotional process.”
For Portals, Volume 2, Davis was musically inspired by AACM-adjacent sax/clarinet conceptualist Matana Roberts and the Palestinian electronic musician Muqata’a. Poet Rilke and visual artist Betye Saar also flowed into its waters; so did Mahalaya, a 16-day lunar period in which Hindus pay homage to their ancestors.
Read on for more about how the album came to be.
UK Jazz News: Portals, Volume 2 features a lot of singing and spoken word; in my opinion, your compositions are well crafted for the human voice, in all its nuances.
Caroline Davis: Well, I’ve been writing songs since I was a little girl. I used to make up really stupid, silly songs. But in terms of studying lyrics, I started in 2009, when I started formally taking more music lessons while living in Chicago, from some of the people in the gospel music community.
I put a lot of work into looking at the canon of soul and R&B, [partly] because I have this other band called My Tree that I’m singing in. SWV, Aretha Franklin, and Gloria Gaynor have influenced me in this realm, as well as lyricists like Judee Sill.
UKJN: I’ve known Jen Shyu for a little while; I’m less familiar with Nappy Nina, Julia Easterlin, and Alexa Barchini.
CD: I met Nappy Nina through [trumpeter and composer] Ambrose Akinmusire. She’s from Oakland, and her dad is a pretty well known radio DJ out there. Ambrose hipped me to, and sent me, her music. He’s played on some of her albums; I’ve always wanted to work with her, and I thought this was a really good opportunity to do that.
I think I met Julia Easterlin through mutual friends. She used to work at The Owl in Brooklyn. Jen and I have met through the years, and we’ve worked together through her and [vocalist and composer] Sara Serpa’s Mutual Membership for Musicians program.
Alexa was a younger student at the Litchfield Jazz Camp, when I taught there. I really like her vibe, the way she approaches singing. I feel she’s a crossover artist, and I wanted people who are not just steeped in one tradition; I loved the idea of multiple genres overlapping on this record.
UKJN: How does Portals, Volume 2 speak to the evolution of your quintet?
CD: That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. It’s been really difficult since the pandemic to organise more opportunities for us, because touring has become really, really difficult, to be honest.
The last record was very highly arranged because of the addition of strings; I wrote specific parts for the core band. So, on this record, I scaled back on that a bit.
The evolution was, Let me introduce a little bit more freedom. I took out some of the specific chord changes, so it could be more open. My thought was to morph some of the music into a more vocal feature[-oriented] element where we’re all accompanists, more than anything else.
UKJN: Care to expand on the current difficulty of touring?
CD: I am trying to stay as positive as possible. I’m hopeful for people who see that it’s difficult, and have connections to organisers and benefactors who are willing to offset those costs.
Because at this juncture — unless you have festivals that have a lot of programming sponsors — it’s definitely less possible to do it with just club dates, because the clubs aren’t really shifting any of their guarantees at this moment. Nor are they offering to reimburse the exorbitant fees that airlines are charging these days.
One thing that’s been useful and helpful is fan funding, especially Patreon, where fans are connected on a deeper level. I think that can be successful and meaningful.
UKJN: In the press release, you cite your grandmother’s “strength and grace,” which seem like useful values in dealing with the music industry.
CD: Yeah, yeah. It’s really interesting to oscillate between feeling hopeless, and trying to feel more positive and evoke a sense that there’s a better road. But it may just be something that is smaller.
UKJN: Looking ahead to 2025, what do you feel optimistic about?
CD: Taking some time to relax. This year has been really insane.
I’m doing two residencies, and I’m really looking forward to having more time and putting more energy into my craft. This and last year have been completely nonstop, learning other people’s music for their tours, and learning my and our music better for the tours.
UKJN: This insane clip, that you and many of the cats subject yourselves to: is a component of that just staying visible, in the mix?
CD: I guess so. Visibility is really important for the music industry, but I feel there’s a lot of power in being invisible. Some of our most respectable superheroes had that ability.
I feel that superpower would be nice; it could be a way for us to recuperate and regenerate. I get the cycle of touring albums, and making sure people are hearing you, and that your music is out there in the world. But our sustainability as artists depends on taking a break, taking some time.
