Tia Fuller - Healing Space

Mack Avenue

Billy Tipton’s legacy sadly hasn’t led to the kind of female presence in jazz that music so sorely needs. Talented women aren’t difficult to name, but they’re still outnumbered by their male peers by a wide margin. Saxophonist Tia Fuller tips the gender scales ever so slightly toward a position of equilibrium with this her second disc, but there’s nothing slight or demure about her music, a vibrant and muscular breed of postbop that crackles with energy. Comprised solely of fellow sisters, her rhythm section of pianist Miki Hayama, bassist Miriam Sullivan and drummer Kim Thompson exhibits both range and prowess. Their informally staged tray card photo could easily be mistaken for that of an R&B or Neo-Soul vocal quartet. What a blunder that would be, though Fuller does boast a coveted frontline spot in Beyonce’s all-female touring band. Other regular gigs with Gerald Wilson, Nancy Wilson and T.S. Monk keep her dance card full and Master’s in jazz performance further solidify the credentials corroborated by the sounds.

Fuller plays alto and soprano saxophones with unmitigated authority with a bit of Greg Osby’s urban funkiness coloring both. The wailing flurries voiced through the former reed on “Blue Room in Mama’s Room” easily register as the acme of the record. Her flute work is similarly adept on “The Olive Leaf and Dove” a slow ballad piece penned by her sister Shamie. Hayama doubles on keyboards, bringing the liquid tones of the Rhodes to pieces like the lushly arranged “Ebonics” while Sullivan and Thompson make a supple tandem and keep the spark strong, even on more elegiac numbers like the topical “Katrina’s Lullaby.” Several male guests fill out the ranks, among them tenor saxophonist Ron Blake and percussionist Kahil Kwame Bell and trumpeter Sean Jones who potently takes names on “Fertile Ground.” Vocalists Charnee Wade and Iyana Wakefield bring two more of Fuller’s originals to life, expressing the composer’s strong religious convictions in song across backdrops that aren’t as ambitious as earlier pieces. Much of the material isn’t very distinctive compositionally, but the sincerity Fuller and her colleagues invest into their renderings successfully sublimates perceptions of the ordinary or overly sentimental. Hearing performances of this caliber, it's easy to envision the spirit of Tipton smiling down from on high.

~ Derek Taylor