Bella & The Notables — 8 March 2023 on Rocket Shop Radio Hour

Bella & The Notables joined host Tom Proctor on ‘Rocket Shop,’ Big Heavy World’s weekly local Vermont music radio hour on 105.9 FM The Radiator. Catch up with them at instagram.com/isabellabellaj

On Wednesday, March 8, host Tom Proctor was joined by Bella and the Notables, a five-piece jazz ensemble led by vocalist and guitarist Bella Sances.

The band has appeared at Burlington venues in many iterations over the years, at times a much larger ensemble, but the current lineup of instrumentalists, in addition to Bella’s vocals, includes Andrew Bernard on drums, Greg Rothwell on fretless electric bass, and Sam Atallah on keyboard. 

The Notable’s set was divided between a second-half of hard-swinging jazz compositions and a first half of soft-spoken, warm and intimate folk-inspired tunes. The first song of the night, “I never thought I could lose you,” is a newly written piece, and features Bella on acoustic guitar. The song’s swaying chord progression is scaffolded by smooth bass tones and simmering brush percussion, adding a jazzy rhythmic complexity to the piece’s down-to-earth acoustic tonality. The lyrics build on the tender, warm instrumental to deliver introspective and emotionally vulnerable couplets, tied together by the titular refrain, “I never thought I could lose you / and still be me.” 

These lyrics reflect a shift in Bella’s songwriting approach toward focused, compassionate introspection. This recent approach coincides with Bella’s enrollment in a music therapy master’s program, which has introduced new ways of thinking about and approaching music. “It makes me look at music in a whole new way,” she said. One of these new approaches is ‘clinical improvisation,’ a method of using musical collaborative improvisation in a therapeutic context. This practice resonates with Bella’s jazz training: “In jazz we already are doing a lot of connecting, trying to reach self actualization, and these higher places. We’re really in the moment, improvising, doing things that are spontaneous. In clinical improvisation… It’s about presence, understanding, listening to yourself, being aware of yourself. It’s a lot of awareness, a lot of identity work,” she said. In terms of how this training has impacted her own music, she said, “Everything you do in your life comes out in some way when you’re on stage. I think it’s brought some rawness. The second song came from a life-review assignment, so thank you, homework!” 

The second half of the set, populated by songs with a more traditional jazz sound and upbeat, swinging rhythms, includes a composition by the keyboardist, Sam Atallah. The song, “Here Without You,” features a challenging and angular vocal melody that brings the listener’s musical imagination in unexpected and wistful directions, outlining subtle emotional contours. The song also ties together the improvisatory form with recurring hits that unite the whole band in triumphant moments of unity. 

Bella and the Notables has a monthly residency at The126 on College St, so you can find them there every second Friday of the month, playing everything from originals like those performed on Rocket Shop to jazz standards from the American songbook. The group has aspirations to record and release a project soon, but no specific dates have been set. For updates and announcements from the band, you can find the group on Facebook or Instagram.   

Text by Gideon Parker

Monochrome photo by James Lockridge