Born and bred in East London, Meg Bird is an emerging young artist right on the cusp of an exciting musical career. Her sound is rooted in the jazz tradition, taking inspiration from vocalists such as Betty Carter and Cecile McLorin Salvant, and she is constantly pushing songs, both old and new, to fresh boundaries. Her song writing fuses this sound with her love for songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Rufus Wainwright, bringing her passion for lyric into the world of jazz.

Meg has performed in venues across the UK from ‘The Blue Arrow’ in Glasgow, to some of London’s most popular Jazz clubs, such as Kansas Smitties and The Vortex. Having graduated with a 1st from The Guildhall School of Music in 2020, Meg now presents her debut album,
Girls Like Lions due for release in October.

The eclectic repertoire reflects Meg's varied influences. She was introduced to Betty Carter's 'Droppin' Things' by her album producer Claire Martin OBE, Meg explains "We heard a live recording of Betty and her wonderful band perform this in New York in 1990, and here we are thirty years later, 5 boys and girls from London trying to put our own spin on it, whilst also trying to honour her genius!"

Cecile McClorin Salvant is another singer that Meg acknowledges as having had a powerful impact on her style, unlocking a fresh element in her vocal and 'Getting to be a Habit With Me' was the first song she'd heard her sing.

'Permanent Wave' is a Carla Bley piece discovered during Meg's studies at Guildhall that she felt compelled to add lyrics to: "There’s a real playfulness and light-heartedness in its melodic romance and the lyrics felt like they already existed as I was writing them."

All the tunes on this debut reflect Meg's developing vocal style and her musical inquisitiveness and imagination. She explains how Paul Simon's 'Still Crazy After All These Years' came to be included: "This is a song I feel like I’ve always known. It came into my head one day as I was practicing, and I thought ‘let’s really work on this’ and it turns out I didn’t know it at all! I was singing it in the wrong time signature, a completely different feel but it all felt so natural! I figured out what I was hearing and that became the arrangement that we have on the album!"

Other notable highlights of this recording are the three originals written by Meg herself; 'Girls Like Lions' inspired by the poem ‘Here Are Girls Like Lions’ by Elisabeth Hewer. "I love this poem. It empowers me and encourages me to take up space and be loud, which is so often the total opposite of how woman are told to behave." and the lockdown inspired 'Weather the Storm' and 'Reason to Return'.

Thoughtful interpretations of more familiar songs complete a mature calling card from a singer announcing her arrival through an accomplished debut album.