Alana Davis was born May 6, 1974 in New York City. Her father Walter Davis Jr. was an accomplished jazz pianist, and while his daughter inherited his musical skill, her initial instrument was the bass guitar, which she started learning before she was a teenager. Possessed with a fine singing voice, she played regularly with guitarist Marc Stone before releasing her debut LP, 1997’s Blame It On Me. Showcasing her blend of folk, R&B, rock, and jazz, the album cracked the Billboard chart, and she had a top 40 pop hit a cover of Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors”. Her eclectic tastes were on display for her sophomore album, 20001’s Fortune Cookies, which included a cover of the Whodini track “Friends” as well as a collaboration with the production crew The Neptunes. She formed her own record label and issued Surrender Dorothy in 2005, which featured a cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper”. She focused on her personal life for over a decade, but returned in 2018 with a new album, Love Again that was inspired by her new home and life in Jamaica.
