pianist and singer Champian Fulton plays Sept. 7 at Japanalia. (Valerie Cho / October 4, 2012)
By OWEN MCNALLY, Special To The CourantThe Hartford Courant, August 29, 2013
Aiming for another championship season of triumphant jazz, blues and cabaret performances, producer Dan Blow launches his fall/winter 2013 "Music@Japanalia Series" Sept. 7 with an encore concert by pianist and singer Champian Fulton.
Stretching from opening night to the season finale, which features the rising, young jazz vocalist Dana Lauren on Dec. 14, Blow serves more than a baker's dozen of deliciously diversified headliners at Japanalia Eiko, his West End venue at 11 Whitney St., Hartford.
Leading her quartet, Fulton puts an indelible jazz stamp on the opening night festivities with her singing, piano playing and intuitive grasp of knowing what grooves move an audience attracted by the opportunity to hear music up-close and personal as it is presented in the cozy cabaret ambience at Japanalia.
As she's shown on such recordings as her 2010 piano trio CD, "The Breeze and I," the young, New York-based performer has a neatly expressive singing voice whose hip rhythms and subtly bent melodic lines show signs of the great Dinah Washington, one of Fulton's childhood heroes.
Sign Up For Traffic Text Alerts
Like Diana Krall, Fulton isn't merely a singer who also happens to play piano. Her playing is authentic and swings in a vibrant style celebrating bebop modernism. As a young player with an awareness of and appreciation for the rich history of jazz piano, Fulton reflects her lifelong passion for such great modern jazz pianists as Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, Erroll Garner, Sonny Clark and Hampton Hawes, among others.
Blow, who's also a noted Hartford fashion designer, seems to have a special place in his producer's heart for vocalists of all kinds, including jazz singers who can weave beautiful melodic lines to tell compelling stories.
So, in addition to featuring Lauren in the season's grand finale, Blow also presents a mini-array of diverse divas including Nicole Zuraitis, another young singer of promise; along with such fine, seasoned masters of the craft as Roseanna Vitro, Shawnn Monteiro and June Bisantz, artists who pay exquisite attention to the holy trinity of style, delivery and selection of repertoire.
Vitro presents a program called "Jazzes Randy Newman and other classics"; Monteiro pays homage to Billie Holiday with her show, "Lady Sings the Blues"; and Bisantz pays tribute to two of her personal aesthetic heroes with her presentation, "It's Always You…and Sometimes Fred! Songs of Chet Baker and Fred Astaire."
Read more: http://www.courant.com/entertainment/music/hc-riffs-0829-20130829,0,5200319.story?track=rss
0 Comments:
Post a Comment