Bellbird – ‘The Call’ album review: Free jazz communicating with nature
Bellbird, a Montréal-based jazz quartet, came together from diverse backgrounds, both geographically, spanning three countries, and musically, diverging from their respective music scenes to immerse themselves in the endless spectrum of free jazz.
The Skinny: Encouraged by the improvisational scene that formed around Montréal’s Café Résonance, Bellbird – composed of Claire Devlin on tenor saxophone, Allison Burik on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Eli Davidovici on bass and Mili Hong on drums – began playing together after being invited to perform at the 2021 Ottawa Jazz Festival, honing their talents as a collective. They self-released their debut album, Root in Tandem, in 2023, the result of their collaborations that sprung from influences across modern jazz, rock, folk traditions and even post-punk. Now, they have returned with The Call, an album that functions as a social and political commentary.
Layered notes open the album on ‘Firefly Pharology’, as the inclusion of drums brings the song to the edge of spinning into a raucous rock record, before they calm, following along with the saxophones as they dance. The song fluctuates from moments of intense speed, wild yet rhythmic, to poignant declines. You can imagine each instrument spinning in its own timeline until it gets dizzy, forced to ground itself in more tranquil melodies.
The hum of Davidovici’s bass drives ‘Murmuration’ forward, keeping the song’s rhythm with each pluck as the horns add a light character, parallel to one another, and the drums rattle in their own sphere. ‘Soft Animal,’ in contrast, is the most relaxed (and shortest) composition on The Call. While not as immediate as its counterparts, the song cements a slowness that is most welcome, centring emotion in its delicate tone.
At the heart of the album is ‘Blowing On Embers,’ a song dedicated to a free Palestine. It begins slowly, the crawl of the bass growing into a melody that channels a leisurely dance. Burik and Devlin’s rhythms form a haunting yet beautiful narrative that carries until midway through, when Hong’s drums suddenly pick up speed, to form an emotional chaos that communicates a loss of–and strive towards– control. Improvisational yet intentional, the song harnesses the feelings of each musician and their instrument, coming together to form a language that evokes a dual pain and optimism.
This moment is the highlight of The Call, for both its stirring resonance and its display of musicianship. It encapsulates the spirit behind Bellbird: an honouring of the jazz tradition while leaning into the free jazz that allows them to travel into unknown soundscapes.
Still, in their experimental nature, Bellbird gets slightly caught in its long-winded moments, like on ‘Eternity Perspective’, a near-eight-minute song, and its follow-up ‘Phthalo Green’ that, while both lovely in composition, loosens their grasp on the listener.
The title track resulted from Bellbird’s study of their namesake, a bird that is believed to be the world’s loudest – the actual bellbird has served as a sonic inspiration for the band since its inception, but on ‘The Call’, they took their fascination a step further by incorporating the bird’s cry into the song, mimicking its pattern and turning that repetition into an upbeat story, and flowing into the album’s closer, ‘Mourning Dove,’ each instrument is given a final spin that ends The Call on a restful note, completing the album’s cycle.
The Verdict: The Call is a beautiful album that finds a balance between the wide-ranging energy of improvisation and the emotion behind intentionality. Bellbird finds power in letting emotion guide their particular jazz renditions, as they consider their place in the world’s ecosystems and use music as their guide.
Standout Track: ‘Blowing On Embers’
Release Date: February 6th, 2026 | Engineer: Sylvaine Arnaud | Label: Constellation
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