Kate Davis sticks to her standards, adds own jazz, pop songs
Kate Davis made a name for herself in the music industry with her versions of songs by such jazz legends as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, and by putting her own, jazzy spin on the hit radio song All About That Bass.
Now the 24-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist is ready to take her career to the next level.
Armed with a new record deal and the confidence that comes with it, Davis wrote and performed more of her own songs on a tour that stopped recently in Hillsboro.
I grew up playing jazz, and I was able to learn a lot from that, Davis said during a recent phone interview between tour stops in Florida. But one day I realized I wanted to concentrate on my own songs. I find it to be the most personal form of expression.
The progression seems natural for Davis, who began playing violin at age 5 and has been on the rise seemingly ever since. Her family moved from New York to West Linn when she was 10, and she continued her musical growth by learning to play piano and double bass.
As a teenager, she earned a spot in the Portland Youth Philharmonic orchestra and began considering music as a career path.
That was really huge for me because the quality of that orchestra is insane, she says.
Having been named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts before graduating from West Linn High School in 2009, Davis enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, a major conservatory located in New York City. While concentrating her studies on jazz and American standards, she began writing her own songs to perform and was recognized with an award for new songwriters by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2012.
Since then, Davis career has been a whirlwind of opportunity and recognition in the music business. She was named one of 15 Females Who Will Rule Pop by MTV, has opened for renowned vocalist Josh Groban, and has shared the stage and collaborated with such industry notables at Alison Krauss, Ben Folds, Joshua Bell and Aoife ODonovan.
A video Davis posted late last year a jazzy interpretation of the Meghan Trainor pop hit All About That Bass caused an Internet sensation with more than 14 million views on YouTube.
Earlier this year she stepped in at the last minute to replace Grammy winner Kurt Elling on the PBS special American Voices and has performed at numerous world-class venues, including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Carnegie Hall in New York, and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.
All the attention sparked the interest of record companies, and this past summer Davis signed on with the California-based Concord Music Group.
It seemed right away that they were willing to support my journey as an artist, says Davis, who expects to release her debut album in spring 2016. They seemed to be looking at it from an artists perspective, and I appreciated that.
Concord executive Mark Wexler describes Davis as a stunning musical talent with a wholly original voice whose potential is unlimited.
On the West Coast leg of her tour, she led a three-piece band accompanied by drummer Conor Rayne and guitarist Alex Foote. The Hillsboro show was the last on the tour, leaving time for Davis to catch up with family and friends in Oregon.
Im excited about it, she says. Ive been home about every year since leaving for college, and its where I need to be at the holidays.
She says she used the tour as a chance to try out and polish material for the debut album.
Along with upright bass, she plays piano, guitar and bass guitar.
Ive played a lot of standards in the past because I didnt have that much of my own material, Davis says. This go-around, because I have a lot more material and, ultimately, will be recording an album, it helps me to try stuff out and get an understanding of what works.