Only two months after his 2020 album debut, Hymns from Grandma’s Living Room, pianist David Billingsley released his sophomore project, House of David, both peaked at #3 & #4 on the iTunes Jazz Charts respectively. A Racine, Wisconsin, native living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Billingsley is founder and executive director of The Billingsley School of Music and Arts, an academy that offers K-12 students access to arts education. Billingsley also tours the World as Keyboardist and Background Singer for Stokley formerly of Grammy Nominated R&B Group, Mint Condition.
Billingsley is a versatile and extremely talented keyboardist, composer, bandleader, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and educator. He dives into the hymnbook as if he's heard and performed these songs his whole life, which of course he has. He imbues timeless melodies with the respect and dignity they deserve, accentuating them deftly rather than obscuring them with an overabundance of runs and ornamentation.
Emerging in the early 2000s, Billingsley helped form all-star group #MPLS which underlines his early collaborative impulses which eventually led to the creation of his Junior Album, Hymns From Mama's House: Family Reunion On this album, Billingsley gathers some of his favorite artists & musicians and takes you on a journey through the History of the African American Church. During this Pandemic Billingsley lost his Mother and Father. He gains the strength to continue on by paying homage and tribute to his ancestors and loved ones through Music. Billingsley has a unique and special way of making life's most difficult moments beautiful.