Jason Bell : Biography
It began, as many things do, by accident. In 1986, a chance encounter with Level 42 set Jason Bell on the path of the bass guitar, though few could have predicted where that path would eventually lead.
The real turning point came in 1992, in the unlikeliest of settings. Pinned to the side of a CD display rack in Tower Records, London, was a poster for Jim Lampi, a Chapman Stick player promoting his debut album TV Weather. Months later, Jason caught the show in Leeds. A kind offer of post-soundcheck pizza during Jim's UK tour turned into something far more significant, long conversation about taking up the Stick.
In 1993, Jason co-founded the Celtic/Rock band The Rumours Are True alongside Rachel Coates, Helen Turner, and Richard Coates. It was at those early shows that he crossed paths with Nick Beggs, then performing with Iona, and another devotee of the Stick. By February 1994, just weeks before the band's first major public performance, Jason had his own instrument in hand. He was immediately hooked.
Gigs with a wide range of musicians followed with many one-off appearances with visiting artists passing through York, including a guest slot alongside Florida folk legend Don Oja-Dunaway.
In 2004, Jason relocated to Northern Ireland, where a chance introduction to singer-songwriter Paddy Nash pulled him out of what he describes as musical hibernation. Duo performances gave way to full band shows, and Jason became the go-to fill-in for acts who somehow arrived without a bassist. (It did happen.) Bass sessions came and went, but the Stick remained his true focus. For the sheer joy of it, he even stepped up to perform a solo acoustic guitar piece at the City of Derry Guitar Festival.
After years as a low-frequency session stalwart, 2014 marked another pivotal moment. Jason picked up the phone and called Jim Lampi with a single, disarming request: "Teach me like I've never seen the instrument before." What followed was several years of rebuilding his relationship with the Chapman Stick from the ground up, this time with an unwavering focus on its melodic and harmonic possibilities.
Around this period, Jason contributed to the In Limbo sessions with Peter Cook, adding a ten-minute soundscape that later found a life of its own, underscoring project stories that never made the final cut. For one brief, remarkable moment, In Limbo sat at number one with Kylie Minogue at number two. The original soundscape remains available on SoundCloud.
Since then, Jason has released four albums in his Sunday Soundscapes series, along with the lockdown record Evening Tide. All are available to purchase and download via Bandcamp. A new collection is currently in production, with a release planned for late 2026.
Jason continues to perform and record as a solo artist, as a collaborator, and as a session musician driven by a quiet, persistent curiosity about everything the Chapman Stick has left to reveal.