Portals is an immersive sound and haptic experience, drawing upon the idea of grief and mourning as textural entities. With this new book of music, Caroline Davis expands her quintet to incorporate her dreams of the most exciting improvisers in the music industry today. The music offers snippets of poetry (written by Davis during the aftermath of her father’s unexpected transition) alongside music that challenges expectations. These tensions create an immersive, improvisatory experience for understanding not only Davis’ grief but our collective mourning through the pandemic.
Caroline Davis – alto saxophone
Marquis Hill – trumpet
Julian Shore – piano
Chris Tordini – bass
Allan Mednard – drums
Mazz Swift – violin
Fung Chern Hwei – violin
Joanna Mattrey – viola
Katinka Kleijn – cello
Miriam Parker – movement
Mobile since her birth in Singapore, Caroline Davis’ music covers a wide range of styles, owed to her constantly shifting environment as a child. Her albums as a leader include Live Work & Play (2012), Doors: Chicago Storylines (2015), My Tree’s Afterglow (2017), Heart Tonic (2018), Alula (2019), Persona’s Anthems (2019), My Tree’s Where the Grace Is (2021), and Portals’ Mourning, Volume 1 (2021), featuring her saxophone, flute, and vocal expressions. She won the Downbeat Critic’s Poll “Rising Star Alto Saxophonist” in 2018. Davis has worked with Lee Konitz, Angelica Sanchez, The Femme Jam, Matt Mitchell, Terry Riley, Miles Okazaki, Thana Alexa, and Billy Kaye. Davis has been a composer-in-residence at the esteemed MacDowell Colony, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship recipient, a CMA Performance Plus Grant awardee, and composed commissions for Arco Collaborative and the MAP Fund. Her compositional practice integrates cognitive science with an emphasis on somatic healing, integrated with her Ph.D work in Music Cognition. Davis is an advocate for social justice in the realm of gender, expressed in a co-taught Jazz & Gender course at The New School, as well as in the abolitionist movement.
