Bird at 100, the 2019 album Bobby Watson recorded with fellow saxophonists Gary Bartz and Vincent Herring, demonstrated the Kansas City hero’s admirable fealty to Charlie Parker. While several Kansas City based jazz musicians have issued fine albums this year, none have observed the centennial of Parker’s birth with the release of a project explicitly dedicated to Bird. Two New York based musicians- the Italian-born guitarist Pasquale Grasso and the Oklahoma native Champian Fulton- fill the surprising void with compelling new projects featuring compositions associated with Parker.
Birdsong has an impossibly charming backstory. Fulton’s jazz-crazed parents played Charlie Parker With Strings during her birth. Fulton later befriended Jay McShann, the bandleader who gave Parker his first big break decades earlier. The joyous blues-steeped swing of The Man From Muskogee informs Fulton’s style.
Her throwback approach is seemingly incompatible with Parker’s ferocious innovations. Yet Fulton finds ingenious ways to honor Parker without compromising her signature pre-bop sound on Birdsong. The presence of Scott Hamilton- the tenor saxophonist admired for his vital evocations of Parker’s heroes like Lester Young and Ben Webster- helps Fulton tactfully circumvent the stylistic challenge. Fans of McShann and Sir Charles Thompson will adore Fulton’s jumping old-school piano attack. And her vocals occupy a space halfway between Sheila Jordan and Sarah Vaughan. Champian’s father Stephen Fulton (flugelhorn), Hide Tanaka (bass) and Fukushi Tainaka (drums) play with a correspondingly joyful spirit.
Birdsong instigates foot tapping. Grasso exercises the cerebrum on Solo Bird. The guitarist’s brilliant disassembling of selections like “Yardbird Suite” and “Confirmation” provides fresh insights into the classic material. His mind-bending agility is the aural equivalent of watching a chess grandmaster play a series of speed matches. At 16 minutes, Solo Bird is frustratingly brief. The EP is part of a series in which Grasso also pays homage to Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Nothing alike, Birdsong and Solo Bird are two disparate pieces of the infinite array of possibilities brought into being by the genius of Charlie Parker.