This is New England Public Radio's Janz Beat. I'm Tom Rini with a podcast edition of Bon Jaz Blog, which you can find at n E P R dot net. I'm speaking today, this is Monday, January 13th. I'm speaking with Champion Fulton.
The singer and pianist will be in concert on Saturday night at the Vermont Janz Center in Brattleboro. And a champion welcome to New England Public Radio to Janzle Mode. We've known each other for quite a while now, and it's a pleasure to speak with you for the first time. For the purposes of sharing some of your story with our listeners this week at New England Public Radio.
Good afternoon. Hi Tom, thank you. I'm happy to be here. Where are you today, Champion?
Actually in New York City, I'm at home. I have a little bit of time at home in Danway, which has been very nice. Oh good. Will you be by the Janz Connect Conference this week?
I might go by, but I will admit that I have really been enjoying being at home. I haven't gone out very much this new year yet. Okay. You'll be in Brattleboro on Saturday with your core tenet to group that's been together for quite a while.
Tell me a little bit about who's on the band. This band has been playing together off and on for more than 15 years. It'll be my regular drummer, the Kushi Tynaka. My first met him when he was working with Lou Donaldson.
He worked with Lou for 30 years. Then he'd been C-Day Tynaka on bass. I met C-Day when he was working with Junior Man in the city. And then my father, Stephen Bolton, on Ljubljarn.
Champion, you were born in Norman, Oklahoma in 1985. And you seem to have come by this profession, this passion, this music, almost by birthright. Tell me a little bit about your family background and how early it was that you knew that this music was important to you, not just to others around you. Well, my father, who plays football horn, also at that time when I was born with playing drums as well.
And he, of course, is a jazz musician. He loves jazz. He wanted me to know about it. And when I was just a baby, in fact, even before I was born, my mother and father only played the record Charlie Parker was streamed for me because they wanted me to know the most beautiful music in the world, which they considered to be that record.
Nice. And then after that, he slowly introduced Count Basie, by Tal, Park Terry. And I just loved the music. And when I realized I could play the piano, I started playing when I was three.
Basically, by the time I was in kindergarten, I was convinced that I was going to be a jazz musician. Wow. Kindergarten. Yeah, I remember drawing.
You know, you would draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up. And I was always on stage playing the trumpet or playing the piano or singing. You know, it never changed. You did play trumpet for a while, didn't you?
I did, yeah, because my father, my father, said friend, Clark Terry. And so they were always playing. And I thought, I want to play too. And I played trumpet all through high school.
And I still play sometimes. But it's very demanding to have piano and voice and trumpet too many things. Tell me a little bit about your father. Where is he from?
Well, actually he's from Oklahoma. He's from a small town, a toca. Same place as Reidonack and her. But my parents both, you know, they moved around.
They met in Houston, Texas. So we're very much like a Southwest family. And he first met Clark Terry in the early 70s when Clark was giving a workshop at a college in Oklahoma. And he was already of course interested in jazz, but I think after meeting Clark, it really supercharged it.
You know, champion, I've been telling listeners for decades who Clark Terry is. Why don't you tell listeners today who Clark Terry is? Well, I grew up with Clark. He was like my grandfather.
He's an extremely important musical figure. He played in the Count Basie band. He played in the Du County band more famously in the Du County band. He was a fan of the list.
And he was one of the first black jazz musicians or musicians at all to be hired on NBC. He was in the original Tonight Show band. And I think that gave him a lot of opportunities here in New York. And he's on so many records.
I mean, he did so much studio work for Quincy Jones. And then of course became a star later on in his career. But some of his favorites, my favorite recordings of him I was his friend Oscar Peterson. And he's very famous for the trumpet and lubohorn.
And for a sense of humor. Well, that's true. A beloved figure, I would say in the music world who died several years ago, but not before he had published a beautiful film. Which is one of the first books I always recommend to people who want to read a jazz narrative of any kind.
But Clark's book not only tells his story and his background in St. Louis beautifully vividly with humor, but with real depth and seriousness. But also of course telling stories about Basie and Du Guillington and others that are in that book as well. So your father met Clark in the early 70s and your father became associated with Clark too.
Because Clark of course, in addition to the Tonight Show and Basie and Ellington and others, he was famous for doing clinics, master classes. I heard Clark Terry's name it seemed as often in relation to those types of gigs as the occasional performances he did in Boston at the jazz workshop at places like that. So would you father involved in jazz education too? Well, he became from Clark through Clark because at that time Clark was in the early 70s.
He had just started to have some health troubles. He had some back troubles which would plague him for the rest of his life. And as he and Stephen, they just sort of seemed like natural friends. And so Clark would ask him to come and accompany him on these trips.
And through that he became really involved in workshops and clinics. And then Clark and he together opened the Clark Terry Institute of Jazz Studies in the 90s, which was in Iowa. Because Clark was very serious about jazz education and he always wanted to have his own school. And so they did that together.
And through that association my father became very involved in jazz education. And me too, because I was always there once I was born. I went to all these clinics. I must have seen Clark rehearse a thousand to say.
I see you went to a study at the SUNY purchase when you chose college. What guided that decision from Oklahoma to Westchester County? Well, I wanted to move to New York just for the jazz history. All my heroes were here are here.
And we looked at different schools. I talked to different people. And it seemed to me that purchase was going to be the best fit for the curriculum. And I liked the idea of the campus not being in Manhattan since I was coming from Oklahoma.
That's a bit of a culture shock. So I wanted to do that. I wanted to study with John Faddis. John is the artistic director there, still is.
And I wanted to get to know him better. One of the records that gets mentioned in your story is a Dina Washington album that is apparently your favorite. It's certainly my favorite too for those in love. When did you first hear that and what does that album mean to you?
Well, I just, I mean, of course, you know, my father was playing all the singers for me. Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughan. We listened to everything. But Dina spoke to me.
And I love this record because Clark is on it. So I could talk to him about it. And the arrangement is done like, you don't. It's a fabulous band.
I mean, you just can't improve on the rhythm section at all. And it's just wonderful. I would say almost a perfect jazz record. And Dina of course had a long career from the mid 40s through the mid 60s made a ton of records.
Lots of singles had a lot of hits. She was the queen of the jukeboxes in the 40s and the biggest selling of black singer or however it was defined at the time. The queen of the blues. No less.
But this record really stands out. There's something that's just got that jazz edge to it. Would you agree? I absolutely agree.
I think it's a musician chosen. And I think, you know, a lot of those records she was doing, like you said, the single and the hit work more crossover pop sort of things. And I think this is what she really loves to do with just, you know, more in the style of her hero. It was a really holiday thing jazz on with a jazz band.
And of course, she doesn't like that rhythm section of Jenny Cobb went and Kelly. And I think it's Kater Bette on bass. Kater Bette and Barry Gelbreath on guitar. You have a favorite on this record?
I do. I think I told you a couple. I love My Old Flame, which is a great beautiful ballad version. And then also I love this campy love.
It's something more flinging and desired. Talking about the Donna Washington album for those in love in this favorite My Old Flame. Oh Flame. I can't even think of his name.
But it's funny now and then how my thoughts go flashing back again. To my old. My new lovers all seem so tame. But I haven't met a gentleman.
That's Donna Washington singing My Old Flame from the album For Those in Love, Donna recorded that for Verve Records back in 1955. And as our guest champion Fulton has noted the arrangements by Quincy Jones and is just a fabulous band including her family friend Clark Terry on Chubbot. They were the great Donna Washington My Old Flame. Champion, a few years ago, you recorded an album 2016 was the year of its release called After Dark.
And I understand that's a tribute to Donna Washington. Of course, so many of my favorite songs are from her records because I love her music so much. And I wanted to play those songs and sort of make a record like the one we're talking about for those in love, Jazz Records. But I'm always a little bit hesitant to make it a tribute record.
But it is a tribute record, even though it doesn't say it on the cover. Well, I'm curious by the opening title on this, The Great Fance, Walter, Andy Ransa of Song, Eat, Misbehaven. Is that a tune that's been in your repertoire for a while? This behaving certainly has been, that's a song.
So Clark Terry had a list of songs that all jazz musicians should know. He would a huge staff while a fan, as am I. Certainly this song is on that list. And I have known it for a long time.
It's a very, I think, it doesn't get the respect. I think it deserves artistically. It's a very difficult song. I think it's very complex and harmonically, melodically very adult, as we say.
But I love that song. I'm glad that we made that the opening trend. Would you like to say something a little bit more about what you find difficult or challenging about Eat, Misbehaven? In general, when you talk about Fat Waller's music, it's so much about the rhythm, but it's also songs that are written by a composer who predates, you know, sort of the codification of the music.
So he can choose to go, he goes more hourly than maybe academically, of course. And on the bridge, I think it's a very interesting thing to improvise over and sound intelligent, which he chapped us so effortlessly. But I think his songs are very creative. Interesting.
I'm thinking about the Louis Armstrong recording of this that goes back to 1929, I think. Magnificent performance by Louis. It's one of my top 10 of his. And if I recall correctly, the bridge has, does it have a brief violin in it?
I'm sorry if they don't remember. Okay. Well, I'm just thinking about how beautifully Louis Armstrong and company arranged that. Because that was the recorded performance that kind of brought that song over Armstrong recorded three or four Fat Waller tunes in that year because he was in a show called Hot Chocolate's of 1920.
Hot Chocolate's of 1929, which featured a number of those tunes. But anyway, let's listen to a few choruses of your recording here of Ain't Miss Behaven. No wonder what with all by myself. No one to talk with, but I'm happy on the show.
Ain't miss Behaven. Save it all my love for you. I know for certain the one I love. I'm true with learn, it's just ain't miss Behaven.
Save it all my love for you. That's our guest champion Fulton, her performance of Ain't Miss Behaven from the album she released a few years ago on Gut String Records. It's called After Dark, a kind of informal tribute to the great Dine Washington. Champion, you grew up in Oklahoma.
You had the family connection with the Clark Terry. You came to a study at SUNY Purchase. When would you say your career began? That's always a difficult thing necessarily depends on me.
It began in Oklahoma because we were working there while I was in high school three or four nights a week. I had a steady gig at, it was a cigar bar, but it was basically because we were there so often and other people were there. It became a sad club in town in Oklahoma City. I think that's when my career began because that's when I started to have a steady band.
When you're working consistently like that every night, then you start to be able to grow and also start to encounter the problems of working every night. But I think if you're talking about more in New York City, I would say I moved here in 2003. When I graduated college in 06, I began working at Birdland regularly. First was my own duo during Happy Hour and then I began singing with David Berger's jazz orchestra.
Every Tuesday night we did the main show at 8 and 10 back then. I think that was my first really good gig in New York. You recorded with David Berger and the band calls the Salton's Swing back in 2007. David is a great expert in Duke Ellington's music, Ellington and Stray Horn's, Billy Stray Horn's music.
When I first got this album, I anticipated a Ellington songbook session. It's not that at all really. You were deep in the songbook, as it were, with David Berger, Romance in the Dark, just one of those things. He ain't got rhythm tunes.
Just those alone, I think, of Billy Holiday among others singing those songs. How did you connect with David? Is that an association that still is in play at times? I do still see David.
We haven't worked together in a very long time. I love big band, you know, the big band music. I love jazz. I love the legacy of the music and the tradition.
Of course, you love Ellington, you love the bass, you love those records. You know, all those great studio bands. It made all those great records with the singers. I was always interested in doing that, and it's a rare thing to get to do.
There's not that many working bands. I just met David by chance, because I had some friends who were at Juilliard studying with him. I went to see his band a couple of times, and it just happened that he was looking for a new singer for the band. I sort of pushed the band basically.
That's how it went. It's a nice album. I know I could potentially remember Francis Davis writing about it in the Village Voice when it was released, inhaling you as the best new singer he had heard in some time. I also noticed Mark Stryker who writes about jazz for the Detroit Free Press called you the best pure jazz singer on the scene.
What do you think of in terms of an expression like that, pure jazz? I know what he meant, but I interpreted it as these days so many people might, you know, have influences and love outside of the canon of jazz. Whereas by some bizarre happenstance, I mean, I don't. I mean, I grew up being influenced only by Donna Washington and Billy Holiday and having a direct influence from my relationship with the Clark Terry.
And then when I moved to town, I wanted to sort of continue that. And I became Francis Sanguades, I became Prince with Lou Donaldson. But I feel like that's what he means. That's the purity he speaks of.
Yeah, I would agree. And I hear that too. And I smile when I think of just what a refreshing kind of renewal you bring to that classic, pure tradition of the music. And while you learn from records, listen to a lot of records, Dina and Billy and others, did you study with a vocal teacher at all?
I did study vocal techniques when I was living in Oklahoma. We were very fortunate at the University there. We had the great Thomas Carey, who's an opera singer. He was American, but he did a lot of his career in the UK in London.
And he was teaching there. He had been teaching now with his wife, who I didn't know, unfortunately. But I started taking like breathing and vocal technique lessons with him while I was in middle school and high school. And I think, you know, apart from that, also learning about breathing from Clark and my father, I would say the vocal training I've had.
So what did you, when you were at purchase, SUNY purchase, what were you focused on there? Well, I was a jazz piano performance major. I didn't do anything at all, really, when I went to school for a few years. I really wanted to focus.
I really wanted to focus on the piano. And I was so lucky at that school. It was so easy to find practice rooms. And I spent a lot of time writing, playing along to records, you know, getting the band together and that kind of thing.
Did you have a pianist or piano players there at purchase who were teachers or particular mentors or guides for you? Well, I went at that time to be an independent faculty as a teacher, but I would say my favorite lessons and where I learned the most was the few, I think, a few semesters where I did private lessons with John Pettis. Oh, John Pettis, okay. The job editor.
Yes, he plays trumpet, did you go with these rotations? Sure. And that was fun because we would listen to records, we'd talk about records, we did James P. Johnson transcription, Errol Garner transcription.
You know, that's when I was really getting into Errol Garner and getting into stride sort of from that. And that is what's interesting in those things. And I think, like me, in that he is obsessed with the music. And so we would talk about records and talk about our ideas about the records, you know, for hours.
And I think those were my favorite classes or lessons at school. I know when I first heard you and I think the first time we met, I mentioned Errol Garner right away. I could just hear something in your touch. And I think the touch is what comes to mind as much as anything, your attack as it were, just has that strength and direct distance.
And direct energy and feeling that I associate with Errol Garner. But as I recall, you responded, yeah, man, Errol Garner, for sure. Well, that's like me. No, I love Errol.
I think the percussiveness of the piano, the way he uses the instruments is, I think, sort of missing a little bit in a lot of the quote unquote jazz piano we hear today. You know, we seem to have kept all the elegant aspects of jazz piano playing and missed out on some more of the human parts. And I think you hear that in Errol Garner. I also hear a lot of that in the piano, in the piano.
Yeah. Yeah. It's also from Oklahoma. And I think, you know, you hear that percussiveness, the rhythm and the way they are expressive on the keyboard.
You know, someone, you said it perfectly there. The percussive sound of Errol and I was searching for words, but that really says it the best. And just a few days ago, someone was talking to me about listening to the money jungle album that Duke Ellington made with Charles Miggas and Max Roach and talking about the intensity of that. And I said, well, that's a record that really illustrates the fact that the piano is really an instrument of 88 tuned drums.
And Errol, of course, had that kind of strong percussive attack as well. So around 2006, you graduated from purchase. So let's say you've been pursuing a full-time career in the music for close to 15 years now. First of all, how's it going?
What's it like today trying to just carve out a life and a living and a livelihood to play the music? Well, it's going great, actually. I've been so lucky, I think, you know, to have my band and to have a lot of really wonderful musical experiences. I've been playing with Fat Hamilton in Europe for the past couple of years.
I tour a lot. I go to Europe. I've gone to Asia. I go to Canada.
We've played in Morocco a couple of times. I even did tour of Israel. And of course, we tour here in the States. I love it.
It's a lot of work. I mean, I spend a lot of time on the phone and on the computer and talking to people and trying to keep the band working as it were. But I think I'm very happy. Do you manage your career?
I do. My father and I do. You do your own bookings? I do a lot of them.
So I have an agent in Europe and she does a lot there and connects me with other people. If it's something she can't handle it in a time to, she might say, oh, this festival in Scotland. They're interested in it. You're not going to get over.
That's a lot of work. But I'm very lucky. My father knows all about that. So contracts and writers and everything is just really more a matter of staying organized with what's going on in sort of like a secretarial or administrative way, which is not very exciting or fun, founding.
But I think we do pretty well with it. And I don't find it to be a burden. Do you like the road? I love the road.
Yeah. What do you love about it? I love playing really. And I think on the road, you can play every night or whatever, relatively every night in a different town with new people in a new environment.
And so you sort of feel constantly, creatively fresh. And apart from that, I just love traveling. I love seeing different parts of the world and trying new cuisines and meeting new people and hearing new languages. So I really like it.
I don't mind the sort of taxing nature of it. I don't feel bothered by that. Do you do any shopping for clothes on the road? Well, I used to spend a lot of money shopping for clothes on the road.
But I've tried to cut back. I used Rent the Runway. I don't know if everyone knows what that is. Rent the Runway?
Rent the Runway is a... I basically rent designer and couture clothing to travel with. And I can mail it back. It's through the mail.
So we send it back and forth. That sounds ideal for a career like yours and a clothes horse like you. I know I love it. A fashion plate.
Scott Hamilton, you mentioned performing with him in Europe. You made a beautiful album together. I hope that's the first of a few or several. But how did you connect with Scott?
Who put that together? Well, I think in Europe, I think it was Marina, my agent. She thought, oh, this would be... you know, Scott's working all the time.
You're working all the time. We do a lot of the same venues. Why don't we do something together? And the first gig we did, I think, was in 2017, maybe in Spain.
And I remember we met, we had lunch, and we made that record immediately. So it was the beginning of a tour. But for whatever reason, the recording was done on the first day. And then we did the rest of the tour.
Sounds like we're working for years together at that point. Oh, I think Scott and I love the same records. And we have the same birthday. I don't know.
That's kind of an interesting trivia. We're both born on September 12. And we just became, we became a friend right away. And in fact, we have a new record coming out together later this year in 2020.
Nice. Well, from the first of the records that you've made, how about we listen to this beautiful song by Ray Noble? This is Scott Hamilton with Champion Fulton, the very thought of you. By the very thought of you.
And I forget to do those little, all identities that everyone. As Champion Fulton with the tenor saxophone, Scott Hamilton, performing the very thought of you, the album they recorded in Spain a couple of years ago, Champions tells us that there's a forthcoming album, but Champion, how about a few words about that song? Ray Noble composed the words in music as he did Cherokee and some other great standards. Why did you choose the very thought of you?
I have always loved that song. I think one of my favorite versions is Joe Williamson, that docing with the verse, which is fantastic. And I just love the melody of the chord changes. And I remember when I was learning it, it was many years ago.
I found the great Hank Jones solo piano version. And Hank had a beautiful solo piano for the arrangement that he does. And it's in the key of D. And I saw Hank here in New York, and I told him, you know, I've been listening to the record, I've been listening to the version.
You know, the key of D in my mind is like very difficult and sort of why would you play it in D on the piano? And he's funny. And I asked him, I said, you know, I think my record's in the wrong running on the wrong speed, but because it's in D. And he was like, no, I played in D.
And I said, why? And I Hank, I mean, I've already looked up at me and he said, why not? And I thought, oh, okay. And do you play it in D?
No, I'm sorry to say that version that you heard there is an E-flat. E-flat. Yeah. That's a good story.
Oh, beautiful. There are, you have such a great taste and tunes, an obvious respect for the tunes. What is it like to approach these great songs and improvise on them? Well, you know, I play tunes that I love to listen to.
So a lot of these songs, you know, we're talking about I play because I heard, you know, this record, that record, or has somebody do it in person. And so you always sort of start out with that in mind, you know, maybe the version you heard or the way it made you feel or things like that. And then I don't know, I think the tune is like, you know, having a song that you like to play is sort of like having a relationship with another person. You know, you love them.
Sometimes you like them. Sometimes you don't like them. Sometimes you wish they would be different. And the longer you spend, you know, with a song, the deeper, I think in more context, your feelings and ideas that can become.
Would you say that you're a kind of, you know, I remember this expression used about Louis Armstrong, a compulsive improviser? Do you sing the very thought of you differently every time out? Or do you have a kind of working arrangement with tunes that you stick by? I love that phrase compulsive improviser.
I think I don't have, I do not sing it the same way every time. There will be some spots maybe that I like to sing similarly, but I like to change the tempos or, you know, even sometimes the keys depending on how I'm feeling. That being said, of course, within the context of the band, we do have arrangements that we would play every time. Although even then, sometimes I'll tell the guys, let's just play it in no arrangement, you know, because you want sort of the suppression of that a little bit.
You know, you don't want to get too much into a routine or a rut with your music. Yeah. And we're focusing a lot on your singing, but you are a pianist, a superb pianist. I remember, I don't know if you recall this, but I attended your recording session for Sharp 9 back.
And I think it was 2012 out of systems too. And I love that Mark, I think it was Mark Edelman who produced the album, asked you to play, well, you played Celia, but Powell's beautiful original. And is that the only time that you've, actually, I think I know the answer to this already, it's not the only tune you've played without singing on records, but it was such a treat and it still is. I play it here and there still in the show to hear you playing, you know, just as like a piano trio leader.
No, we have, usually, I do remember that by the way, of course, I remember you being there in the studio and that was a really fun recording date, the record of things and things. But not only, you know, on each record, I like to put a couple piano trio things are instrumental things. And in fact, in 2017, we also released just a piano trio record called Speechless, which is all my original songs. So I haven't done one with standards, but I would love to.
I love piano trio format. I mean, I love playing piano. I love not, I love singing, but I also love not singing. And we find it kind of a hard balance because if I play a gig or if we need a record that's really heavy on one of the other, definitely some listeners always want more of the one that's not there.
So I have people who are like, oh, can you play this, you know, my favorite is the piano and not the thing, and other people who say, oh, my favorite is singing and not the piano. So it's always kind of, I never know. And I never know my own favorite either, so it depends. Well, speaking of instrumental, though, you do on your recent release with the saxophoneist Corey Weeds called Dream a Little, have a composition of your own called Lullaby for Art.
And I know you've recorded this before as well, but it's a real, it's beautiful and a highlight of an album that's got an awful lot of highlights in it, Champion. But who's art? And just tell us a little bit about the inspiration for this song before we hear a little of it right now. Well, this song was first recorded on the feature, and it is a drum feature when I wrote it, because the art in question is Art Blakey, who is really one of my favorite drummers, and I love the messengers, but I also love a lot of his other five men work.
And I thought of him with this tune, but they'll send off and send off the drums and the hits and things. And when I made the track of the Corey, Corey was really, he loved that song until we were playing it and he said, let's record it on a duo record. But it's a drum feature, and Corey, we'll do it anyway, and I think it works really well in the duo setting, but it is a tribute art Blakey. Well, it does work indeed.
And I'm going to thank you Champion for speaking with us today, and I wish you a nice visit to New England this weekend when you play the Vermont Jazz Center. Many of you will be listening to this conversation after Champion's performance on Saturday night, but of course Champion Fulton makes her way around New England and around the world routinely. So if you miss Saturday's gig in Rattleboro, let's hope there's another opportunity soon. And thanks again for speaking with us today.
Thank you Tom. Alright, and here's Champion Fulton with Corey Weeds, Lullaby for Art.