Claire Devlin: tenor saxophone
Allison Burik: alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Eli Davidovici: bass
Mili Hong: drums

Bellbird’s debut album Root In Tandem 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 band is a collective, with each member contributing compositions for the album.

While rooted in modern jazz, this music bears  influences from myriad musical styles, from moving folk melodies, to atonal counterpoint, to rock grooves that stretch the boundaries of the jazz medium. Moments of tension and collective improvisation in songs like Maybe I Won’t Go and Ten Dog are balanced by the catchy melodies of Bluff and If You Can’t Swim, Dance. 

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. Capturing the ethos of the band, the music on Root In Tandem grows out of a mutual curiosity and creativity, with feelings of space and calm pierced by exhilarating solos and free improvisation, always keeping the listener on their toes. 

www.bellbird.band

Release Date: Friday, August 18th 2023