Champian Fulton - Birdsong (2020)

With Birdsong, Champian Fulton not only pays tribute to the mammoth musician who has played such an integral role in her life as an artist, but also hopes to expose the music of Charlie Parker to new audiences and prove that even on the eve of his centennial, Bird truly is timeless.

Champian delves into the Bird songbook on eleven carefully chosen compositions written by and/or made famous by Charlie Parker. “I wanted to focus not only on his originals, but on his recordings that I consider to be some of the most beautiful songs ever recorded in the world,” said Champian, adding, “...these songs are classic Bird, with rangy and dramatic melodies, romantic lyrics and adventurous chord changes.” Album opener “Just Friends” serves as a brilliant introduction to Scott and the steadfast rhythm section (Fukushi Tainaka on drums & Hide Tanaka on bass), and is, according to Champian, one of their favorite songs to play. His best selling single, Bird often said that his recording of “Just Friends” was among his personal favorites.

As Charles Taylor writes in the liner notes, “It’s fair to call Champian an essentially optimistic artist and thus, as was once said about the filmmaker Howard Hawks, we have to be careful of underrating her because we enjoy her. Listen to Birdsong and what you hear from her and her quartet is what Albert Murray once called “flexibility, the art of adapting, and the necessity for continuous creation in a perpetually oppressive and unstable world.” Which is a way of saying that Champian has paid tribute to the musician she listens to every day by making everything she sings of, the joys and sorrows, sweeter. We should all have the grace to wear our influences so lightly.”

Champian Fulton (p)
Scott Hamilton (ts)
Hide Tanaka (b)
Fukushi Tainaka (ds)
Guest:
Stephen Fulton(Champian’s father) (flh)