The female big band singers of the 1930s and ’40s, said vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton (photo above), were “very brave, courageous. Think of a young woman traveling on a bus with 18 or 20 men.”
They were also glamorous, she added. And on Sunday, March 2, to kick off Women’s History Month, Fulton transported her audience at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison, NJ, back to the exciting Big Band era with a tribute to its female vocalists.
Among the selections: Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things”, closely associated with Ella Fitzgerald; Lil Hardin’s “Just for a Thrill”; and “All of Me” (Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks), often sung by Billie Holiday. Fulton was joined by Hide Tanaka on bass and Aleksi Heinola on drums.
The Karen Xie Quartet (photo below) opened for Fulton. They played four tunes including a spirited rendition of Chick Corea’s “Chick’s Tune”. Pianist Xie was Jersey Jazz Magazine’s Rising Star last December: https://njjs.org/rising-star-karen-xie/ All four quartet members are Jazz Studies majors at Montclair State’s John J. Cali School of Music.
CHAMPIAN FULTON PHOTO BY MARGUERITE LA FOUNTAINE
KAREN XIE QUARTET PHOTO BYSANFORD JOSEPHSON
