NEW BLOG: Champian Remembers Jimmy Cobb

Champian posts a new blog post EVERY Friday! Check it out here and follow.

“It was a sign. A handwritten photocopied sign stuck to a community bulletin board on Macdougal St., and it read “LIVE TONIGHT! Frank Wess & Jimmy Cobb FAT CAT 9 PM $5″ I honestly didn’t believe it was a real sign advertising a real event. It was my first weekend in New York City. My parents were dropping me off to start my freshman year of college and that Sunday afternoon we were just strolling around the West Village exploring. I was only 17 but I was already obsessed with being a Jazz musician, and I certainly knew who Frank Wess and Jimmy Cobb were. After some investigating (these were pre-google days, I had to call 411), I found out that Fat Cat was a Billiards Hall not far from where we stood, but when I called, no one answered. So we decided to just show up there at 9 PM and see what was happening.

I simply couldn’t believe my luck when we walked down those stairs and saw the actual gig. Indeed, Frank Wess and Jimmy Cobb were performing as part of a quartet that I would later find out was run by guitarist Ilya Lushtak. In those days………(click here to continue reading)”

Join Champian's Online Sunday Evening Jazz Party!

www.paypal.me/champianfulton Venmo: @ChampianFulton

While we are physically distancing at home, we can still be together! Please join me ONLINE every Sunday at 5 PM EDT for a Sunday Evening Jazz Party! I will play and sing, chat and you can comment in real time! I will be LIVE on my facebook page and youtube page.. Thanks to your enthusiasm and support I have purchased a Shure MV 88 Microphone so the sound is great! Please join in and tell your friends, I look forward to seeing you, please be sure to say hello if you tune in. I hope you are well, healthy, and surviving this time. Thank you for your friendship!

TUNE IN ON SUNDAYS facebook.com/champianfulton OR youtube.com/champianfulton

5 PM in NYC

2 PM in Los Angeles

11 PM in Paris

10 PM in London

7 AM Monday morning in Sydney Australia

6 AM Morning morning in Tokyo Japan

THIS CONCERT IS FREE. If you are able and wish to support Champian during this pandemic, you can donate any amount via this website, paypal, or venmo (links below)

Donate to Champian

www.paypal.me/champianfulton

Venmo: @ChampianFulton

Thinking of You During This Time of Social Distancing & Stress

Hi everyone! I want you to know that I am thinking of you and your families during this very stressful and confusing time. I hope each of you are healthy and safe and able to find some peace, whether it be through reading, listening to music, or being around loved ones at home.

My performance calendar is in a constant state of flux, I am doing my best to keep it updated. We are trying to reschedule most concerts as opposed to “cancelling” them, so that once this passes (and it will pass!), we can all get back to doing what we love to do, including enjoying live music!

In the meantime, I am going to be sharing more music playlists, videos, book recommendations, and definitely LiveStreams from my home! If you have song requests, ideas, or if you just want to reach out for anything at all - I am here. Send me an email: champian.fulton@gmail.com

Sending you lots of love!

-c

PS - Losing this much touring work has a big impact on my bottom line, but I am going ahead with the scheduled release of my new record “Birdsong” on July 10. A lot of you have asked if you can help out since I have lost so many gigs this spring, and if that’s something you’d like to do, I am making my PayPal & Venmo public. I will never put my LiveStreams or music behind a paywall, because I want my music to be for everyone, but if you want to help out, you can :) Thank you for your friendship!

Venmo: @ChampianFulton

paypal.me/ChampianFulton

Champian to Perform for the FIRST TIME in both Brattleboro Vermont & Wilmington North Carolina in January

The Vermont Jazz Center presents pianist/vocalist Champian Fulton on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m.

The Commons writes “She conveys the essence of swing effortlessly and authentically; her performances give listeners a fresh appreciation of the creative possibilities inherent in an older style. In Fulton’s hands, swing is a vibrant, living music that resonates with meaning and joyous playfulness.” Read the full (very informative) article here -> http://www.commonsnews.org/site/sitenext/story.php?articleno=31650

Tickets and Info available here —> https://vtjazz.org/calendar/champian-fulton-quartet/

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Wilmington NC will get a chance to hear Champian at the fortieth annual North Carolina Jazz Festival, January 24 - 25. Read about the event and Champian in Wilma Magazine —> https://www.wilmamag.com/jazz-with-fulton/

She will be the first female jazz pianist to play at the festival!

Tickets and info available here —> https://ncjazzfestival.org/

Jazz Pianist and Vocalist Champian Fulton Champions the Songs of Billie Holiday (Ken Herman, San Diego Story)

The San Diego Symphony in collaboration with San Diego jazz station 88.3 FM presented this program on November 30, 2019, in the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall.

Master jazz pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton ruled the Copley Symphony Hall stage Saturday in her sizzling program Lady Day: A Tribute to Billie Holiday. Ably assisted by three instrumentalists selected by Jazz at the Jacobs Concert Series Curator Gilbert Castellanos, Fulton’s quartet gave highly charged interpretations of many of the songs Holiday championed.

Fulton’s approach to this tribute program saluted a number of songs Holiday recorded and made popular, especially in the 1930s, the early years of Lady Day’s career. Fulton included only one of Holdiay’s own songs, her “Fine and Mellow,” recorded on the Commodore label in 1939. Fulton did not—wisely, perhaps—sing any of the iconic Billie Holiday songs, her own compositions “God Bless the Child” and “Don’t Explain,” or “Strange Fruit,” a signature song she did not write but did make its first widely circulated recording.

With Fulton’s opening salvo, a very upbeat, rhythmically propulsive account of Rube Blume’s 1939 “Day In, Day Out,” she defined her musical strategy. Although the tunes may be vintage, Fulton’s assertive piano technique and breathless contemporary style brought everything up to date. In “Me, Myself, and I,” a song Holiday recorded in 1937, Fulton toyed with Irving Gordon’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics, but they faded into the background, easily displaced by Fulton’s blazing piano elaborations and the seductive effusions of Ralph Moore on tenor saxophone. Ditto for their performance of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer’s evergreen “I Thought About You,” also from 1939.

Beginning Marks and Simon’s “All of Me” (1931) as an airy duet for voice and the syncopated filigree of young bassist Alex Frank proved pure magic, especially when the subtle brushwork of percussionist Kevin Kanner crept in and then disappeared while Fulton and Frank brought the song to its deft final cadence. Fulton proved equally successful navigating the sophisticated phrasing of Irving Berlin’s 1935 “Isn’t This a Lovely Day (to Be Caught in the Rain?”), a sweet if lesser-known song that Holiday recorded much later in her career.

Several songs benefited from the full quartet’s rousing athletic ensemble, notably “Pennies from Heaven” (1936), Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things” (1935—and, yes, Holiday recorded this song in 1935), and “Travelin’ Light,” a song by Young and Mundy with Johnny Mercer’s lyrics. Trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos joined the quartet in this 1942 tune that brought a very full program to its close.

Rave Reviews for Champian's new record "Dream a Little..."!!!!

“[Dream a Little] practically pants with unvarnished vitality….Fulton has set a high bar for herself since her 2007 debut Champian. In recent years she’s released a series of strong albums, each exposing a different aspect of her music. Dream a Little… might be her most pleasingly inviting. From the concise opening title track, she and Weeds establish the house rules with a conversational intimacy that bespeaks trust earned over many years and many gigs. It’s a loose session rife with quicksilver interplay. Fulton isn’t a subtle singer; she’s got an edge of brass in her voice that makes ballads, like a convincing version of “Darn That Dream,” more fulsome laments than whispered confessions. Weeds listens closely and responds in kind, often using his airy lower register as a tonal counterpoint when Fulton’s voice ascends. The album is also a showcase for her pianistic facility. She plays with such swinging joie de vivre on “Once I Had a Secret Love” that it’s easy to forget it’s not an instrumental track.” - Andrew Gilbert, JazzTimes

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“Champian’s vocals reveal an evolving, idiosyncratic singing style: unpredictable, surprising and incredibly elastic. She can be coy in the manner of Blossom Dearie’s little-girl warbling one minute, and sexily un-demure the next, as on “Darn That Dream,” where sighs signal mood changes from dreamy to sensual. The words of “Pennies from Heaven” billow in her opening chorus, but she toys with them, submerging the notes of under to the lowest range, in the out chorus. The track also is memorable for Champian’s solo, an exuberant foray into stride piano, contrasting with all her other more mainstream modern piano excursions.” - George Kanzler, Hot House Magazine

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Dream a Little...

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"At this point in jazz history, Champian Fulton is the best piano-playing singer and the best pianist who happens to be a singer. With her blend of precision and flair on the keys and her nuanced approach to the mic, she’s been unstoppable lately. Her career validates the old proverb that you get good at what you do: somehow, in between gigs, she manages to find the time to make albums....While this is first and foremost a collection of bittersweet love ballads, it’s also uproariously funny when least expected: Fulton has a subtle and often sly sense of humor, particularly on the keys. As if we need yet more proof that more artists should be making live records, this is it." - NY Music Daily

“Fulton plays superior swing-oriented piano, can sound like Erroll Garner whenever she likes, and is a personal singer who sounds like she would have been very much at home in the 1940s and ‘50s yet does not sound dated.” - Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene

“Unconfined by a rhythm section, Fulton sounds freer and more playful than on earlier releases; her playing is bluesier and more muscular, especially in the lower registers.” - Alexander Varty, Straight.com

“…two quality musicians came together to deliver romantic standards. Fulton has a lush, full chords piano style, and a luxurious voice, with crisp clarity of diction. Weeds wove an often complicated saxophone line through the melody. This album is exceptional easy listening to well-known standards—just the thing for a pensive winter evening beside the fire.” Martin McFie, All About Jazz

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“Champian Fulton can play piano, she can sing, she can swing, she can be sassy, and can be silky smooth…..One can hear traces of Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter on the latter track plus dig the Art Taum-esque piano solo on this most delightful ballad... "Dream a Little..." is a lot of fine music in one dynamic duo package. Champian Fulton & Cory Weeds certainly had fun that night (check out the pianist's giddy response to the tenor solos) and you will as well once you surrender to the sweet sounds.” - Richard Kamins, Step Tempest

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“the latest release from national treasure Champian Fulton finds her in duet with the excellent saxophonist Cory Weeds–no rhythm section, no nothing except piano, voice, and sax. And because Fulton is equally entrancing as a vocalist and a pianist, and Weeds is a marvelously intuitive and tasteful player himself, every track would count as a highlight on any other artist’s album.” - CDHotList

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"Champian Fulton perpétue avec bonheur la tradition des pianistes-chanteuses dont elle est, avec Diana Krall, une représentante distinguée.

Inspiré par Red Garland dans la manière d’utiliser les blocks chords et par Wynton Kelly, son jeu de piano constitue un appui sûr pour un soliste. Portée par un phrasé précis, sa ligne de chant épouse les contours d’une mélodie dont elle tire toute la saveur avec parfois un brin de sophistication." - Couleurs Jazz

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“the ten song program will provide you with an hour of hip sounds from two musicians who seem to have a natural affinity. Fulton has become established as a first-rate vocalist, and her piano playing is superlative…” - Joseph Lang, Jersey Jazz!

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"Champian has previously shown a willingness to take risks, after six albums highlighting her vocals she released “Speechless”, which consisted of original instrumental piano work in a trio setting. An album any manager would have advised against received rave reviews.

"Dream a Little..." highlights her singing more than any of her previous releases but still leaves ample space for Cory Weeds to explore. Her own piano work is rich and often unaccompanied." - Joe Bebco, Syncopated Times

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“[Dream a Little] is music pure where two great artists show how much fun musicians and audience can have playing and listening to these popular songs. If you want to bring this spirit in your living or dining room then order this album and you have Champian Fulton and Cory Weeds playing exclusively for you. Enjoy, you will not regret it!” - Michaels Jazz Blog

Listen to the single on all digital platforms RIGHT NOW: http://hyperurl.co/sla9h2

Champian Wins Best Vocalist & Best Pianist at the Hot House Readers Jazz Award Ceremony

Champian is named Best Vocalist and Best Pianist at the Hot House Readers Jazz Awards Ceremony, held at Birdland Jazz Club on November 24. Fukushi Tainaka was also named Best Drummer!!

Thank you for nominating and voting! YOU’RE the best!