| Jazz |
Jamie Davis – Steppin’ Out: A Rich Baritone, a Great Band and Twelve Standards Sung With Class and Heart
Put on a tuxedo, let the golden lights of the city glow, and walk into an evening of good songs, good friends and a voice that makes you feel at home. That is the atmosphere of Steppin’ Out, the new album by Jamie Davis, the Grammy-winning baritone and former vocalist of the Count Basie Orchestra, out on Womani Jazz on November 1, 2026. It is a generous, elegant, beautifully played record of standards, blues and bossa novas, and one that we love very much. The mark on Paris-Move: Great (Love).
Jamie Davis: a voice with depth, warmth and swing. From the first notes you recognise a voice that belongs to a great tradition. Davis has a deep, round and velvety baritone that brings to mind Joe Williams and Arthur Prysock, both of whom sang with the Count Basie Orchestra, and yet he sounds like nobody but himself. Born in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of a preacher, he grew up with jazz, blues, R&B and gospel, sang in an R&B band that opened for the Ohio Players, tried New York, returned briefly to Ohio and finally settled in the Bay Area and then Sacramento, where he has become a respected figure of the regional jazz scene.
A chance meeting with Joe Williams’s widow, Jillean Hughes Dath, led him to join the Count Basie Orchestra in 2000. He sang with the band until 2003, and later appeared on its 2023 album Basie Swings the Blues, which won the 2024 Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. He has also worked with George Benson, Tony Bennett, Patti Austin, Billy Cobham and Rosemary Clooney. Stanley Crouch once called him an extremely polished singer, and this album proves it. As Davis himself says, the title Steppin’ Out is his way of reminding us that, even in the autumn of his life, he remains a vibrant musical force with a voice of his own and something special to share.
Jamie Davis, who produced the album himself, surrounds himself with a first-class band. Pianist Shelly Berg is the musical director and writes the lush string arrangements, Wycliffe Gordon plays trombone (his sliding, speech-like inflections are a joy), Scotty Barnhart, who leads the Count Basie Orchestra today, plays trumpet and flugelhorn, Doug Lawrence tenor saxophone, Ronnie Foster the B3 Hammond organ, Grant Geissman guitar, Trevor Ware acoustic bass, Leon Joyce and Greg Errico drums, and James Henry percussion, with Tom Keane on pads. Carmen Bradford, a fellow Basie vocalist, joins Davis for a duet, and Glen Pearson plays piano on “Pure Imagination”
The soulful arrangements are shared among several hands: Josh Nelson, John Gove, Jim Martinez, Michael O’Neal, Joe Gilman, Aaron Lington, Glen Pearson and Shelly Berg. This gives each song its own colour while the album keeps a clear identity. And the arrangements leave room: the baritone draws you in, and then the whole band wants your attention, with trumpet, trombone, saxophone, piano and organ taking each song for a walk.
Steppin’ Out moves with a real sense of journey. “Estate” (the Bruno Martino and Bruno Brighetti classic, arranged by Josh Nelson) opens the album with a relaxed, seductive Mediterranean warmth and a Latin touch, easing you into the evening. “Teach Me Tonight” (arranged by John Gove) is a duet with Carmen Bradford, a classic song given a swinging, bluesy and fun reading, the two voices blending like a baritone and an alto saxophone trading lines. “Pure Imagination”, in a tender bossa nova arrangement by Glen Pearson, is soothing and beautifully fleshed out, and “You’ve Changed” (Josh Nelson) is a knowing torch song, sung without self-pity, with an elegant trombone from Gordon.
“Bad Luck”, the blues associated with Dinah Washington, with Greg Errico on drums, is smoky, gritty and made for a club under a neon sign. “The Windmills of Your Mind” (Jim Martinez) is driven by a propulsive, circular rhythm that echoes the hypnotic imagery of the lyric. Thelonious Monk’s “Well, You Needn’t” (Michael O’Neal) is a pure, infectious pleasure, with hip horns and fine piano, and Horace Silver’s “Señor Blues” (Joe Gilman), also with Errico, gets an anthemic, Afro-Cuban treatment, with sizzling guitar from Geissman and some very vivid vocal brushstrokes.
At the heart of the album stands “Fragile”, Sting’s song, arranged by John Gove, the lead single and a pivot for the whole record. Davis explains that it touched him deeply, in a world that feels more and more fragile and fragmented, and you can hear it: his baritone gives real weight to its vulnerability, with delicate guitar fills and a gentle bossa rhythm. It is currently under consideration for the 2027 Grammy Awards in the Best Jazz Performance category, and the performance earns it.
The last stretch is a masterclass in sequencing. “Here’s to Life”, the song associated with Shirley Horn, in an arrangement by Aaron Lington, takes its time, building patiently before Davis enters, and then the performance is intimate and reflective, an artist alone after the show, loosening his tie, with Berg’s strings adding depth. “Dat Dere” (John Gove), by Bobby Timmons and Oscar Brown Jr., is a playful release in which Davis is clearly having fun. And Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady”, also with Berg’s strings, closes the album as if the song had been waiting for this voice: a perfect, natural match of singer and material.
Steppin’ Out is at once easy and sophisticated. You can put it on with friends and a glass in hand, and you will enjoy it; you can also listen closely, and you will find a singer who inhabits his songs, paints with his voice, and shifts from the quiet strength of “You’ve Changed” to the loose-limbed fun of “Well, You Needn’t” without ever losing his centre of gravity. It respects tradition without being a living museum: the songs, by Ellington, Monk, Silver, Legrand and Sting among others, are heard afresh, and the Latin and bossa touches give them a new colour.
The sound is warm and clear (recorded and mixed by Woody Woodruff in Oakland and Sacramento, and mastered by Mike Bozzi at Bernie Grundman Studios), the band sounds relaxed and generous, and the whole record has a lived-in, natural feel that is rare. This is the sound of a master vocalist entirely at ease with his own authority, supported by seasoned players who know exactly how to frame him. A GREAT album!
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 30th, 2026
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Tracklisting (composers / arrangers):
- Estate (Bruno Martino, Bruno Brighetti) – arr. Josh Nelson
- Teach Me Tonight (Gene DePaul, Sammy Cahn) – arr. John Gove
- Pure Imagination (Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley) – arr. Glen Pearson
- You’ve Changed (Carl Fischer, Bill Carey) – arr. Josh Nelson
- Bad Luck (Juanita Hill, Dinah Washington) – arr. Josh Nelson
- Windmills of Your Mind (Michel Legrand) – arr. Jim Martinez
- Well, You Needn’t (Thelonious Monk) – arr. Michael O’Neal
- Fragile (Sting) – arr. John Gove
- Señor Blues (Horace Silver) – arr. Joe Gilman
- Here’s to Life (Artie Butler, Phyllis Molinary) – arr. Aaron Lington
- Dat Dere (Bobby Timmons, Oscar Brown Jr.) – arr. John Gove
- Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Mitchell Parish) – arr. John Gove
Musicians:
Jamie Davis – vocals
Carmen Bradford – vocals (track 2)
Shelly Berg – musical director, piano, strings
Doug Lawrence – tenor saxophone
Wycliffe Gordon – trombone
Scotty Barnhart – trumpet, flugelhorn
Trevor Ware – acoustic bass
Leon Joyce – drums
Greg Errico – drums (tracks 5 and 9)
Glen Pearson – piano (track 3)
Ronnie Foster – B3 Hammond organ
Grant Geissman – guitar
James Henry – percussion
Tom Keane – pads
Credits:
Produced by Jamie Davis
Executive producers: Jamie Davis, Enaj Leotaud, Sam Beler (Unity Music Foundation)
Recorded and mixed by Woody Woodruff at 25th Street Recording Studio, Oakland, CA, and Track Shack Studio, Sacramento, CA
Mastered by Mike Bozzi at Bernie Grundman Studios, Los Angeles
Package design by Naisi Thomas
Cover by Enaj Leotaud