As an art form, jazz has been notoriously slow to include women instrumentalists, but Tia Fuller — jazz saxophonist, composer and professor at Berklee College of Music — is on a mission to change that.
A Spelman alumna, Fuller has shared the stage with Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé; Ralph Peterson and Terri Lyne Carrington; and her very own quartet. In 2019, she became only the second woman to earn a Grammy nomination for best jazz instrumental album — Carrington was the first.
Fuller’s latest achievement as the saxophonist behind the character Dorothea Williams in Pixar’s “Soul” brings even greater visibility to women in jazz. Fuller performed the music behind Williams, while actress Angela Bassett played the voice.
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