Grace Kelly

This edition of Terence Blanchard’s UpSwing series focuses on a pair of superb award-winning saxophonists, composers, and bandleaders, Tia Fuller and Grace Kelly. ABOUT TIA FULLER A masterful saxophonist and composer possessing “the brilliance of a diamond” (DownBeat), Tia Fuller has divided her remarkable career into two full-time halves, as an accomplished and uncompromising bandleader and as a collaborator to the stars. The Colorado-born Fuller was raised in a family of teachers with musical inclinations, beginning piano lessons at three and saxophone by middle school. She graduated Magna from Spelman and Summa from University of Colorado at Boulder before moving east, building a reputation as a fiery and soulful instrumentalist with Nancy Wilson, the Ellington Big Band, Ralph Peterson Jr., Dianne Reeves, and Jon Faddis. She began her career as a bandleader in 2005 with her debut release Pillar of Strength, and was noticed by R&B megastar Beyoncé, who called on Fuller to join her all-woman band, resulting in a six-year partnership that included multiple world tours. The saxophonist served a three-year stint on the road with bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society band, and participated in drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic and Money Jungle projects, while lending her tenor to four albums with former SFJAZZ Collective trumpeter Sean Jones’ working group. Fuller has issued four superb releases on the Mack Avenue label, including her 2018 session Diamond Cut—her first in six years—featuring appearances by Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Adam Rogers, Carrington, Sam Yahel, James Genus, and Bill Stewart. ABOUT GRACE KELLY Called “the future of jazz” by NPR, 25-year-old saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly is a seven-time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll and has risen to be a major jazz star, appearing with Jon Batiste and Stay Human on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on concert stages around the world. A soulful soloist with a warm, burnished tone and a preternatural gift for composition and arrangement, Kelly began her musical journey while still a youth, writing her first song at seven and releasing her 2005 debut album, Dreaming, at 12. Innumerable accolades and collaborations followed that auspicious start, as the young saxophonist appeared with the Boston Pops at age 14 and performed by Wynton Marsalis’ request at the inauguration festivities for President Obama, sharing in the stage with jazz icon Dave Brubeck. She’s led nine full-length albums including GRACEfulLEE in collaboration with NEA Jazz Master Lee Konitz and Man With the Hat with fellow NEA honoree Phil Woods, and participated in the Kennedy Center's 15th Annual Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival as part of an all-star band including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Esperanza Spalding, Geri Allen, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Kelly performs in support of her new album, Trying To Figure It Out, which was voted the #2 Jazz Album of the Year in DownBeat’s 2016 Readers Poll.