Champian Fulton - The Breeze and I (2017)

Since her arrival in New York City after earning her music degree at SUNY-Purchase Music Conservatory, Champian Fulton has been a regular performer in Manhattan clubs and restaurants. Gifted with an expressive voice and chops at the piano to match, Fulton is the kind of performer who engages her listeners and draws them into her world with her interpretations of standards and a few once-popular songs that are overlooked by most singers of her generation, many of them played by her favorite jazz pianists of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Working with her regular trio, bassist Neal Miner and drummer Fukushi Tainaka, there are several outstanding tracks among the vocal selections, including her cheery, conversational take of "Exactly Like You" and her expression of the dual nature of "I'm Confessin'." It's hard not to mention Fulton's deliberate rendition of "If I Had You," which showcases her Erroll Garner-like piano solo and eventual vocal tag. The instrumental tracks are just as potent. She infuses Harold Land's "Land's End" with a sly humor in a loping setting, while her breezy take of "The Sheik of Araby" incorporates several playful quotes (including "Moose the Mooche" among others), also featuring Tainaka's snappy brushwork. "The Breeze and I" is also in good hands with Fulton, incorporating both a Latin air and swinging hard bop. The pianist shines with her rhythmic, breezy setting of "My Heart Stood Still." The music of Champian Fulton can't help but uplift a jazz fan's day. ~ Ken Dryden