Champian Appears in Hometown Jazz Festival, Jazz in June, Norman Oklahoma
Champian Is Coming Home
In the Norman transcript June 13, 2025
By: Doug hill
One of the biggest and most celebrated talents on today's international jazz scene calls Norman her home town. Vocalist and pianist Champian Fulton cut her teeth playing Borders Bookstore gigs as a young teenager before leaving Oklahoma for university. Now based in New York City her performance schedule this year reflects dates up and down the east coast along with shows all over Western Europe.
Champian is coming back to red dirt next week as part of the 2025 Jazz in June line up Friday and Saturday evenings June 20 and 21 in Abe Andrews Park, 201 W. Daws Street. Catch her show here for free or fly to one in Denmark later this summer. Champian has many fond memories of fun, learning and hard work in central Oklahoma all of which have contributed to her stellar career. She set the goal of being a jazz musician at age eight.
"Back then my heroes were my father Stephen Fulton (trumpet, flugelhorn, drums) and his friend Clark Terry," Champian said. "I saw Clark traveling all over the world playing shows, signing albums, wearing nice clothes and having a good time. That's what I wanted and now feel so fortunate and happy because that's what I'm doing. I play music for a living traveling all over the world where I have friends. It feels great living what I dreamed of."
Stephen Fulton ran the Clark Terry Institute of Jazz Studies at Westmar University in Le Mars, Iowa for a time where he'd worked extensively with the prominent trumpeter.
Champian had some terrific role models in both men. In addition to a live performance career she released her 19th studio recording titled "At Home" in May.
"I'm really excited about it," Champian said. "It's a duo record and I love that format. It's intimate and casual. I think you find the most creativity that way."
Her collaborator is Swedish saxophonist and clarinetist Klas Lindquist.
"We recorded it last summer in a private residence so it was a little more fun than in a studio," she said. “I met Klas in 2023 at the
Copenhagen Jazz Festival. They paired us together and I loved his beautiful playing, especially clarinet which you don't hear in that kind of setting very often anymore. We played a week together that summer and started working more. I thought he was a great addition to the band because audiences really take to his playing."
Champian's virtuosity has only improved over the years. She learned the business side early on as well along with a jazz music foundation.
"We played consistently at Makers in Bricktown during my high school years," Champian said. "It shaped me musically and gave me such a good sense of work ethic. I was working. We'd go up there and set up the drums then play from 9 p.m. to 1:30 in the morning. My dad was training me. Out first set would be 90 minutes long with a 15 minute break. Nobody does that anymore. Here in New York if you play 45 minutes, people are like I need a break. I tell them, oh man, come back to Oklahoma with me. We would crush it working so hard."
Champian took that Okie work ethic away with her at age 17 straight from Norman to undergraduate school at State University of New York-Purchase. She did more than study, also gigging in the nearby Big Apple.
"I hosted a jam session at a club starting my freshman year," she said. "Sunday night from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. and I had class Monday morning at 9. We would play the session and the trains don't run all night but they would start again at 4:30 a.m. so I could catch a train or a ride back to school. Then have breakfast, change clothes and go to class. When you're 18 years old you're fine and can just go. Nap a little bit then yeah, let's go again."
Listening to an early Champian record circa 2004 her vocals sound like a child. She wasn't even old enough to belly up to a whiskey bar yet. In 2025 her pipes have womanly sophistication. As a kid she learned to sing from a revered University of Oklahoma operatic baritone and became his protégé.
"My artistic goals and style from when I was 14 are still very much the same," Champian said. "But I think I've gotten better over the years. My voice has certainly developed as I've gotten older. Thomas Carey was my teacher starting in 1998. Typically he didn't take teenage students. My father knew him from the Jazz in June committee. I auditioned to be Thomas' student at his OU office. He took me on and taught me everything I know about breathing, technique and managing your voice when you're sick or stressed. I studied with him until he passed away. Last time I played at Jazz in June which I think was 2000 Thomas was there. That was a wonderful relationship for me. He was an exceptionally talented singer."
Champian didn't want to sing opera though she sang some Italian and German arias to practice technique. As Carey's student she sang a few times at Cimarron Opera's annual Festival of Spirituals. During his decline in health Carey kept only a few students with Champian being among them.
"It's a nice memory studying at Thomas' house on Saturday mornings after playing a Bricktown bar until 1:30 a.m.," she said.
At Jazz in June next Friday Champian will be performing as part of "Ladies of Legacy" which includes musicians Mikki Yamanaka
and Young Joo Song. During Saturday's finale Champian will be guest artist with the Summer Jazz Collective Youth Program.