For those unaware, Spark Bird (due out March 31st, 2023, and released on her own independent label, Empress Music Group,) is Emilie-Claire Barlow’s first full album in over 5 years.

And exactly just what is a Spark Bird, I hear you say? It’s actually the bird that changes everything. It’s the bird that inspires an ongoing curiosity and passion for these magical creatures.

And in Emilie-Claire’s case, the birds that helped changed the course of her life, and inspired her to put together this collection of songs.

During the dark isolation days of the coronavirus pandemic, award-winning Canadian songstress Emilie-Claire Barlow found herself at an artistic crossroads. She questioned if she would ever want to make another record to add to her impressive 12-album oeuvre.

She hadn’t been able to tour and she wasn’t aroused to assemble a new collection of songs. So, and despite the long pause in recording time over recent years, you simply cannot fully quiet a vital creative artist.

Case in point: Barlow’s return to action with her brilliant new album, Spark Bird, that she co-produced with her partner Steve Webster.

1. Over The Rainbow
2. Fais comme l’oiseau
3. Skylark
4. Bird of Beauty
5. O
6. Where Will I Be?
7. Little Jazz Bird
8. Pájaros de barro

With each song having its own signature bird illustration, designed by Caroline Brown, Whitebear Design, this quite deliciously-absorbing new recording opens on a song written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland, the brightly shimmering Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg standard, Over the Rainbow and the comfy, French-sung, playful track Fais comme l’oiseau (which means Do Like the Bird), and they are followed by the luxuriously romantic, Hoagie Carmichael/Johnny Mercer standard Skylark (complete with a surprising swell of strings arranged by Drew Jurecka), and then comes her uptempo reimagining of Stevie Wonder’s 1974 hit Bird of Beauty (part of the chorus encouraging Take a chance and ride the bird of beauty of the sky).

This extremely captivating, and wholly heartfelt eight-song avian journey continues onward with Coldplay’s O, an ambient piece that comes after their Fly On track, here handled just as delicately by Barlow, and that is then backed by the longing yearn of the futuristic Where Will I Be? (When there’s no more rain, no more sun / Will there still be birds?) by the Toronto-based composer Hannah Barstow who plays piano on the track, the album rounding out on the Gershwin & Gershwin classic tune, Little Jazz Bird (where she adds in another popular melody from the ’20s, When the Red, Red Robin, Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along), as a countermelody, and which ends with guitarist Reg Schwager’s solo (that Barlow uses for a noteworthy stretch of vocalese), closing on the sung-in-Spanish rendering of Manolo Garcia’s Pájaros de barro (here in a duo format with pianist Chris Donnelly; and appropriate closing song about seizing the day and flying free).

The most poignant song of the collection is Barlow’s moving take on Coldplay’s O that was arranged by band pianist Amanda Tosoff. This song has a special meaning, the singer says. I tragically lost a young family member in a plane crash. He and I and his mom were big fans of Coldplay, so the lyrics of fly on are so relevant. I played this at his funeral. For this album version, we used strings and Rachel Therrien offers a melancholic, mournful flugelhorn solo.

In addition to the bird songs of joy and sorrow on Spark Bird, Barlow has worked with graphic designer Caroline Brown of Whitebear Design to create original bird illustrations. Caroline’s avatars for each song are so whimsical, playful and special, Barlow says. And she has me interacting with them in some way.

There’s a happy orange-breasted bunting for Over the Rainbow, a graceful and solitary great blue heron for the darkness of Fais comme l’oiseau, a flock of swallows for O, a ridiculously cute Australian pink robin for Little Jazz Bird. And the signature bird for Pájaros de barro is my yellow-winged cacique.

So, Spark Bird ends with the noisy, comical bird that served as the inspiration for her soulful, emotive music. In her liner notes, Barlow writes, When that cacique tapped on my window, I felt a spark. Not just a budding bird obsession, but the curiosity and desire to see what life would be like if I spent more time in this place that makes me feel so buoyant and full of wonder ... the birds - a constant source of joy and inspiration - have reignited my spark. For that, I’m full of gratitude.

As Barlow writes in her liner notes, A bird arrives and changes everything. Before its debut, she is offering a cascade of singles, beginning January 20 and continuing every two weeks until the release date. Birds have the power to completely transport me, says Barlow, who splits her time between Toronto and Mexico where she and Webster are building a house with a fully operational studio.

So, when I decided to do the album, I started going down this path of gathering songs about birds. They’re my joy, my fascination. These songs tell a story.

After a five-year hiatus from releasing a full album, this year finds Barlow in fine Spark Bird shape to wing her career to a new plateau. Little did she guess during the dark times that a daily visit from a yellow-winged cacique that is native to the southern Pacific Coast of Mexico would inspire her to dedicate an entire album of songs to birds of all shapes and varieties.

That all said, Barlow hastens to note that while she is not a member of an organized birder group, her appreciation of the choirs and colors of birds has heightened her passion to learn more about her winged discoveries.

In her 25-year career of delivering a distinctive and accessible style of vocal jazz, Barlow has accrued a remarkable resume of critical success, including seven Juno nominations, with two jazz vocal Juno awards-2013’s best Jazz Vocal Recording for her all-French song collection Seule ce soir and her Clear Day collaboration with the Metropole Orkest winning the same award in 2016.

Also in 2013, Barlow scored a Felix Award for Seule ce soir as ADISQ’s Album of the Year-Jazz Interpretation. Previously, she had been named Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2008 National Jazz Awards.

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