Canadian Jazz Showcase
Bellbird
Saturday, June 22, 7:30pm
Royal Albert Arms
Bellbird is a collective of Montreal-based musicians. Their debut album Root In Tandem was released worldwide in August 2023. It is a culmination of several years of composing and music-making by tenor saxophonist Claire Devlin, alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist Allison Burik, bassist Eli Davidovici, and drummer Mili Hong. Recorded during the winter at a lakeside cottage in St Zenon, Quebec, the album represents a communion of four distinctive spirits putting all their creative weight into a shared artwork.
The four members of Bellbird grew up in disparate situations, spanning three different countries and emerging from wildly different musical scenes. The quartet found each other in Montreal in 2021, and it took no time at all for them to realize that they’d found kindred musical spirits in each other.
While rooted in modern jazz, Bellbird’s music bares influences from myriad musical styles, from moving folk melodies, to atonal counterpoint, to rock grooves that stretch the boundaries of the jazz genre. Capturing the ethos of the band, the music on their debut album grows out of a mutual curiosity and creativity, with feelings of space and calm pierced by exhilarating solos and free improvisation.