Jazzy `Birdsong'
Oklahoma native celebrates Charlie Parker centennial with new album
When Champian Fulton says she has been listening to the music of Charlie Parker since the day she was born at Norman Regional Hospital, the jazz singer and pianist isn't exaggerating.
“My dad wanted me as a baby to hear this specific record, Charlie Parker's `Bird with Strings.' And my mom said, `OK.' They were high school sweethearts, so she was definitely involved in his love of jazz,” Fulton said. “They had a cassette tape of the music and a tape recorder, and as soon as I was born, they had to put the music on. ... Mom said basically everyone thought they were a little bit crazy, but it was mostly harmless. ... And that's how I got started listening to Charlie Parker — there in the hospital with my mom.”
The New York City-based recording artist is taking part in this year's Parker centennial celebration with the Aug. 28 launch of her new album “Birdsong,” featuring esteemed saxophonist Scott Hamilton, as well as Fulton's longstanding quartet that includes bassist Hide Tanaka, drummer Fukushi Tainaka and her father, Stephen Fulton, on flugelhorn.
Nicknamed “Bird,” Parker was born Aug. 29, 1920, and became an influential jazz saxophonist and composer and leading pioneer of the bebop style in his tragically short life. He died March 12, 1955, at the age of 34 from the physical fallout of his struggles with mental health problems and substance abuse.
“I'm such a fan of his really first and foremost. I love his music, and I really think it's beautiful music. And I think people should listen to it. I definitely want to be in that legacy of his music, not only jazz, but sort of this regional aspect of it. He was from Kansas City; I'm from Oklahoma; his first band leader, Jay McShann, was from Muskogee. There's this sort of ... Southwest idea and perspective on life represented in the music. I definitely want to be a part of that, and I love that I've been able to make this project that sort of really focuses and dedicates the music to that,” Fulton said in a phone interview this week from NYC.
Jazzy upbringing
Although she grew up in the 1980s, Fulton, 34, never heard the pop hits of Madonna or Prince until after she started school.
“I definitely loved jazz right from the beginning. That's really all we listened to in the house,” she recalled. “I remember going to school and I was like, `Oh, wow, not everybody knows about this amazing music that I love.' ... I would bring these CDs and these tapes to show and tell when I was a 5-year-old and in kindergarten and be like, `You should listen to
Charlie Parker, too.'”
She was still a student at Norman North when she started playing regularly at local jazz festivals and in Bricktown, where she frequently performed from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday-Saturday at Maker's Cigar Lounge.
“Everything I owned smelled like cigars, and I was like in high school. I'm pretty sure everybody was like, `What is she up to?'” she said with a laugh. “But I really loved being a jazz musician, and I really wanted to do that. ... I just feel really fortunate that I was able to start my career there.”
She attended State University of New York at Purchase to study jazz piano and settled in the Big Apple in 2006.
“Everybody sort of comes to New York as like the proving ground,” Fulton said. “Now, a lot of people think of New York when it comes to jazz. ... But Oklahoma and the territory bands that went through there and through Missouri were so important. I definitely grew up knowing a lot about that history. . ... I really wanted to keep that spirit alive of the music.”
Centennial collection
Her new “Birdsong” is Champian's 12th release and second collaboration with Hamilton, whom she first connected with in 2017 for a live concert in Spain that was recorded and released there.
“I wanted to do something with him again, and he's also such a huge Charlie Parker fan. It just seemed like a good fit ... even though Bird played alto saxophone and Scott plays the tenor saxophone,” Fulton said.
The pair made plans for their Parker tribute last summer in the medieval Tuscan village of Certaldo, where the American saxophonist has lived for more than a decade. But when Hamilton arrived in New York to record the album in October, he was pressed for time and met Fulton's bandmates the day they all went into the studio together.
“Birdsong” showcases 11 compositions either written by or made famous by Parker. It opens with one of Fulton's must-haves, “Just Friends” from “Bird with Strings,” the sessions on which producer Norman Granz helped Bird fulfill his longtime dream of recording with an orchestra.
“Charlie Parker said it was a favorite recording of himself. ... When I hear that record, I know it so well and it's so beautiful and it gives me good feeling,” she said. “It's almost like the program just sort of organically came together, like `Oh, this makes sense. These fit so nicely.'”
Pandemic release
Fulton's 2020 plans have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Unable to tour, she started a free weekly livestream series that broadcasts at 4 p.m. Oklahoma times Sundays on her Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Although her plans for a weeklong residency at Birdland Jazz Club NYC were thwarted by New York's continued lockdown, Fulton said she and her ensemble recorded an hourlong multicamera concert with no audience last week at the legendary venue. It will stream Sept. 1 with a live chat as a ticketed virtual release party.
“It was a very surreal experience to be sort of on the stage and performing and trying to talk to people who were not there,” she said. “But this (music), it's maybe like an auditory coming home.”