Champian Performs in New York Emmy Nominated Show
Champian appeared in the NY Emmy nominated show “Take Me Back to Manhattan”, produced by Jazz at the Ballroom and Ordinary Sunday. The show was televised on NY1 in 2021.
Champian featured in Hot House Jazz Magazine as Live at Birdland recording begins this weekend
Champian Fulton is featured in the September 2022 issue of Hot House Jazz Magazine as she prepares for her upcoming Live at Birdland recording and performance this weekend, September 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Champian Releases a Piano Trio Record, Blue and Sentimental, on Venus Records
“Blue and Sentimental” features Champian with her Scandinavian rhythm section of Kristian Leth and Hans Backenroth. Performing only in the piano trio format (no singing), the tune selections are mostly Jazz compositions by musicians such as Fats Waller, Cedar Walton, Thad Jones, Major Holley, and Phineas Newborn.
Read more about the release here: https://venusrecord.com/v2/release/VHCD-1301.html
Champian in the Columbia Tribune : How jazz artist Champian Fulton plays both and in and out of her time
Link to the Full Article: https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/05/20/how-jazz-artist-champian-fulton-plays-both-and-and-out-her-time/9737689002/
“Champian Fulton has discovered the secret to seizing each musical moment.
The singer-pianist has absorbed countless measures of great jazz. When Fulton sits at the keyboard, she sounds both as if she is bringing all that history to bear and somehow freed by it; free to choose which muse to follow, free to be truly herself in light of all that came before.
One could, of course, observe that all jazz is grounded in a continuum. But Fulton has an intimate relationship with its history. And the deep, timeless sensibility of her work makes each moment sound alive and new.”
Champian Announces European Tour, Spring 2022
On the heels of a successful 2021, Champian Fulton returns to Europe with 27 shows in 6 countries over 7 weeks, including an extended stay in Northern Italy and a return to cities such as Frankfurt DE and London UK, which haven’t seen Champian since 2019. Audiences can expect to hear repertoire from her award winning 2020 release “Birdsong” and 2021’s “Live from Lockdown,” both of which were awarded “Jazz Vocal Album'' of the year in the NYC Jazz Record. In addition to the posted concert dates, Champian will be recording a new album while in Copenhagen which is expected to feature her piano playing with a return to the all instrumental format (Champian is expected to record 2 albums this year).
Yamaha artist Champian Fulton is a world-renowned pianist and vocalist, considered by many to be “the most gifted pure Jazz singer of her generation” (Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press) and a “charming young steward of the mainstream Jazz tradition” (The NY Times). She has released 14 albums since 2006 and performed in over 25 countries.
For tour details visit www.champian.net/schedule
For inquires email marinachasse@gmail.com
Champian Featured in the Absolute Sound (February 2022)
“Some musicians want to reinvent the wheel every time they record an album, but not Champian Fulton. With musical heroes like Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington, she stays rooted in the music that’s closest to her soul. “I like things that swing,” she once put it. “I’m a bebopper at heart.” The same could be said of her father, Stephen Fulton, who joins her for a series of duets on Live from Lockdown. A mixture of instrumentals and vocal performances, the album features Champian on piano and vocals and Stephen on flugelhorn and trumpet. Standards like “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You,” “Satin Doll,” “Moonglow,” and “What Is This Thing Called Love” are delivered with a casual late-night air that calls to mind many mid-century Jazz albums. Champian is a soulful singer whose enthusiasm is infectious, and there’s a life-affirming quality to Live from Lockdown. Simply having the opportunity to play the music she loves and share it with other people seems to be all the inspiration she and her father need to record an album that makes listeners feel like they’re part of a small, intimate, and special audience.” - Jeff Wilson, the Absolute Sound
(publicity by Lydia Liebman Promotions)
Christmas with Champian at Birdland reviewed in Broadway World!
by Stephen Mosher, December 24 2021. Read the review & see pics here.
It may be beginning to look a lot like Christmas but it isn't sounding like Christmas at Birdland, even though that is what is being sold in the show title CHRISTMAS WITH CHAMPIAN. Yes. Champian Fulton's current show does have some holiday music in it, but not the way a person might think. Everybody who has had their fill of candy canes and eggnog, of sugary Christmas music and preachy religious compositions can revel in the fact that Ms. Fulton's jazz trio is presenting music you could listen to every day of the year... even if the lyrics occasionally do feature Yuletide verbiage. It doesn't matter what Champian Fulton is singing, honestly; she could be performing "Michael Row The Boat Ashore," "Gregorian Chant" or her "ABC's" and she would still sound like she was singing the most intricate improvisations ever to be heard on the stage of a jazz club or any other stage anyone would care to nominate. When you have a voice like Champian Fulton's you kind of have to sing jazz. It's a rule. It's the eleventh commandment. This is a woman and an artist who was destined to sing jazz, which is exactly what she is doing at Birdland this Christmas, and which is why there are people in a nightclub at Christmastime.
Working alongside her dope drummer Fukushi Tainaka and boss bassist Hide Tanaka, Ms. Fulton is presenting some seventy minutes of casual conversation and sophisticated swing. Oh, it isn't swing in the sense of a "Swing Band" but this band really does swing, and it is a genuine joy to sit in a room and watch them play because it's like watching youngsters on a playground, having fun. That is because Fulton and co. really are having fun. Without benefit of any charts, the jazz trio plays off of one another, enjoying each other's company and artistry, even taking out opportunities to stop and watch each other, sometimes laughing out loud as they marvel at the skills on display by their colleagues. At times laid back and cool, others boisterous and exciting, Champian rides a slow boat back and forth between her jazz-infused holiday classics like "The Christmas Waltz" and a significantly wonderful "Winter Wonderland" and classic standards like "I Cried For You" and evening highlight "The Very Thought of You." A bona fide jazz set, there is no script, no trajectory, no story being told, though Fulton is a very good storyteller, as evidenced by the odd recounting of a backstory here or the off-handed remark about Willie Nelson there, and with each new comment revealing a little more of a who she is and what amuses her, there is a tangible tug of a heartstring or two that informs a growing tendency toward being besotted by the charming Champian.
It is difficult for a stage manager or club owner to pick just the right placement for a piano because, no matter where a member of the audience sits, they will be missing some visual that feels important. If the pianist is singing (as Ms. Fulton is) there is a desire to see their face; if the pianist is exciting (as Ms. Fulton is) there is a need to see their fingers. The Birdland team (or perhaps Champian herself) has done a pretty good job at staging the piano in just the right place, but Fulton herself is constantly aware of the audience and makes sure that the crowd gets a look at her face enough times to appreciate her beauty. More important, though, than the face is the hands. There is a kind of eloquence to the way Ms. Fulton's hands move over the keys - it's not as showy as some of the other pianists we've seen at Birdland, but there is a definite purpose to the movement, giving the audience chances to see a more relaxed fluidity at times, and then some very pronounced key strikes at others, even times when one hand rises into the air and pauses, waiting for le moment juste to come down onto the keys. It is a rather emotional experience, as is the journey of observation to be taken with Misters Tainaka and Tanaka, both of whom play their instruments with a candor and humor that constantly reminds one that they are up there to play, that the audience is the happy beneficiaries of their playtime, not unlike the lives of athletes. These three people are just athletes with music - and it's such immaculate music that this writer had one of those rare moments when the concept of music, the thought that somebody along these centuries had the idea to create music, became clearly appreciable. While listening to all of the layers, the colors, the nuances of the Champian Fulton Trio play this show, I actually wrote in my notebook: "There are times when the miracle of music rings true to you." It was during the performance of "Gracias a Dios" that the notation occurred, just below a scribble that says, "It's like watching a sporting event" that was made during a performance of Oscar Peterson's "Blues Agent" that stood out as the triumph of an evening filled with noteworthy musical moments, particularly a "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" that will redefine the way a person considers the famous holiday composition.
Redefining the holidays - a lot of people could use a little of that right now. It's not that easy these days to get into a Christmas mood, and there are many who don't even celebrate Christmas. But the thing that we can all celebrate every day of the year is music that will make us feel, help us to feel better, remind us of all that's great and good in the world. This is that music.
Read the full review HERE