Champian in the Absolute Sound (May / June 2024)

“Champian is a powerhouse of a musician! Equally talented as a vocalist and as a pianist, she has been releasing high-quality albums of beloved jazz standards and other great repertoire on an annual basis. Champian swings with clocklike precision, and no matter the tempo there's an ease and excitement in her music making. Her singing includes kittenish scoops and inflections, and you will often hear the smile within her sound. On her recent live recording Meet Me at Birdland with bassist Hide Tanaka and drummer Fukushi Tainaka, you can fall in love with the warmth of her sound on the standard "Just Friends" which begins as a plaintive sweeping waltz ballad and then gradually kicks into a walking swing tempo. Champian is one of the few vocalists I know who can sustain the "s" of a word such as in "friends" and make that sound musical, and on words like "two" there's a type of caress on the sound of "ooh" that make that word and sound come alive. Every song is a work of art in Champian's hands (and voice).”

-Karin Plato, The Absolute Sound