In March 2024, vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton released an album called Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared (Jazz at the Ballroom), paying tribute to female vocalists of the Big Band Era. Featuring several guest vocalists, it included such standards as “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (closely associated with Ella Fitzgerald); “I Don’t Know Enough About You” (Peggy Lee); and “Sweet Georgia Brown” (Anita O’Day).
At 3 p.m. on March 2, at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert held in Madison, NJ’s Community Arts Center, Fulton’s trio will celebrate Women’s History Month by featuring some selections from that album and her related live shows, recognizing “the legendary women who shaped the jazz genre, showcasing their remarkable talent and the timeless classics that defined the era.” Fulton “will talk about the great female jazz musicians who began their careers as band singers, such as Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday; and I’ll perform songs closely associated with them.” She will be accompanied by bassist Hide Tanaka and drummer Aleksi Heinola.
When Fulton presented her “Flying High” show last March at Birdland, the guest vocalists were Jane Monheit and Lezlie Harrison. Reviewing it for Broadway World, Rebecca Kaplan singled out Fulton’s “silky rendition” of ‘I’ve Heard That Song Before’ (originally sung by Helen Forrest); Harrison’s “masterful command of rhythm” on ‘The One I Love Belongs to Someone Else’ (Doris Day); and Monheit’s “stunning version” of Jo Stafford’s ‘You Belong to Me’.” Fulton will be back at Birdland with guest vocalists in late March.
Other activities for the vocalist/pianist this year include a new duo album with Swedish jazz clarinetist/saxophonist Klas Undquist, to be released in May on Turtle Bay Records, and a second Flying High album due out around Christmas.
Last May, Fulton and saxophonist Cory Weeds recorded an album on Cellar Music called Every Now and Then. Reviewing it for DownBeat, Ted Panken wrote: “Fulton self-accompanies and solos on piano with harmonic sophistication, impeccable chops, a risk-friendly attitude, and an idiosyncratic conceptual range spanning Bud Powell, Erroll Garner, and several other way stations, refracted into her own argot.”
The Champian Fulton Trio will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening act featuring a quartet led by pianist Karen Xie (photo below), who is studying for her Masters Degree in Jazz Studies at Montclair State’s John J. Cali School of Music. The other members of her quartet, all Cali students, will be bassist Dominic Carnival and drummer Benjamin Barham-Wiese, from New York City; and tenor saxophonist Will Travis, from Hollis, ME. Xie was the Jersey Jazz Magazine December 2024 Rising Star.
Before arriving at Montclair State, Xie, who grew up in NYC, studied at Hunter College where trombonist Ryan Keberle is Director of the Jazz Program. He described her as “one of the most talented musicians I’ve had the pleasure to work with in my 21 years-plus of leading the program.”
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, log onto https://artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/njjs-champian-fulton-03-02-25/
: Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding for this LIVE! concert has been generously provided by Lynne Mueller.
