JAZZARIUM

Champian: Vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton With David Berger & the Sultans of Swing
City Hall Records

This is an enjoyable romp through a bountiful 14 songs ranging from classic (Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things") to now-obscure pop (Billy Reid's "The Gypsy") to original (Berger and Hendricks's "Never-The-Less"). Berger's band has a lot of punch within the precisely controlled and intimate framework of his sharp arrangements, which wonderfully highlight Fulton, an early twentysomething with a musicality and sophisticated delivery that belie her tender age.

A native of Norman, Oklahoma, Fulton was influenced early on by her jazz trumpeter father, Stephen, and his musician friends, among them trumpeter Clark Terry. The family moved to LeMars, Iowa in the '90s so her dad could direct the Clark Terry Institute for Jazz Studies, and Champian formed her first band, the Little Jazz Quintet, whose oldest member was 12.

She has a warm but restrained voice that brings to mind Ella's--but of course one has to add some caveats to a statement like that. It's more muted and girlish. And, not to be too Simon You-Know-Whoish about it, she's occasionally pitchy and lacks confidence sometimes in the lower register.

That's nit-picking, and only points up her youth and great promise. This is an enjoyable album, and augurs many more even-finer ones. If you're in New York, you can catch Fulton and Berger's Band at Birdland Tuesday nights.

Mike Moreno

Between the Lines

World Culture Music

Guitarist/composer Moreno's album on drummer Kendrick Scott's World Culture Music is fabulous. Melodious, varied, imaginative, and delicately produced, it features excellent playing by Moreno, John Ellis on tenor and soprano sax, Marcus Strickland on tenor sax, Aaron Parks on piano, Doug Weiss on bass, and Kendrick Scott and Tyshawn Sorey on drums.

Moreno excels in legato arpeggiatic explorations and also enjoys various overdubs and ghostly pedal effects. He and Parks have some nice doubling in their jazz-baroque lines. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on even richer orchestrations and more faith in simpler but still rich melodies in Moreno's future compositions. Just a guess. He has such a fertile musical imagination that I think it will take ever fuller and more subtle arrangements to reflect it.

Marcus Strickland

Open Reel Deck
Strick Muzik

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about Marcus Strickland's new release. Even though it has Moreno on guitar, Carlos Henderson on electric bass, Keyon Harrold on trumpet, and Strickland's twin brother E.J. on drums, I found it a little tedious. These are, one and all, highly accomplished and technically formidable musicians. But I just didn't find the tunes very engaging, the jams went on a bit, and the solos sounded too often like grandstanding divorced from the group's vibe as a whole. I won't start babbling no-I-in-team adages, and besides there's a lot of I in good combos, but there really is a discomfiting feeling here of every man for himself.

"Subway Suite" had a little more heart to it, and I liked the titular tension of "Volatility," though it kind of underlined for me the nerve center I felt missing in much of the album.

Open Reel Deck also features spoken-word artist Malachi in five numbers. And while I know spoken word has a longstanding, venerable tradition yadda yadda yadda, it most often does nothing for me. I'm impressed artists like Malachi can think so fast on their feet, and I occasionally enjoy the surreal imagery that bubbles forth from the beat's imperatives. But to my ears, it distracts and detracts as often as it enhances. Just not my cup of tea, but if it's yours don't let me poison your listening. We all have our idiosyncrasies, and I'm sure some folks underline the idio in mine.

-Alexander C. Kafka