Tia Fuller & Shamie Fuller-Royston: Fuller Sound Vol. 2

Dynasty
Release Date: April 3, 2026
Label: Cellar Music Group

When sisters Tia Fuller and Shamie Fuller-Royston returned to the Fuller Sound name on their new album, Dynasty they formalized a musical history that long predates their individual careers.

Fuller Sound was the name of the saxophonist and pianist’s original family ensemble, led by their parents, vocalist/ mother Elthopia Fuller and bassist/father Fred Fuller — a working band built around shared repertoire, performance discipline, and nightly music-making rather than commercial recording projects. Dynasty frames that living history in recorded form for the second time (vol. 2), carrying the family’s musical lineage into the present.

Recorded as an intimate duo at Klavierhaus in New York on March 21, 2025, Dynasty pairs Fuller’s alto saxophone and voice with Royston-Fuller’s piano. The stripped-down setting draws directly from music the family played together for years alongside new compositions written in response to those formative experiences. Following their mother, Elthopia Fuller’s passing in 2022, the album also marks a personal shift: Tia’s decision to sing, bringing voice into the Fuller Sound language as a continuation of her mother’s artistry.

The material on Dynasty reflects lives shaped inside music from an early age. Shamie’s “Ode to Bach” traces a melody she first heard as a child through a playful Sesame Street ABC segment, long before she knew it was Bach — a tune that stayed with her and was often sung around the house.

“In This Quiet Place” was written for healing during troubled times, or for moments when silence itself becomes a place to escape. “Windsoar,” written years earlier, reflects the simple feeling of being able to soar through the sky — of enjoying life and freedom without complication are both compositions by Shamie.

Tia’s compositions place family directly at the center. “Dooty Baby” was written for their younger brother Ashton, a playful double meaning that nods to childhood games, sibling squabbles, and the unspoken duty to look out for one another. “Momma Said” celebrates the radiant, loving spirit of Elthopia Fuller, whose guiding words — “surround yourself with love and light” — served as a daily prayer of protection and optimism.

“Black Viking” was written after touring with pianist Leszek Możdżer and his Symphosphere Orchestra, reflecting the contrapuntal harmonies of that experience as seen through Tia’s perspective as a Black woman.

Standards appear not as repertoire choices but as inherited language. Sam River’s “Beatrice” was a favorite the sisters performed growing up as a trio with their father. Horace Silver’s “Summer in Central Park” recalls a tune Shamie loved playing with him while learning jazz, whether as a duo or with Tia.

Freddie Hubbard’s “Dear John” was a go-to melody learned sitting in at Denver’s El Chapultepec Lounge, often played over the changes to “Giant Steps.” The brief postlude “Descend to Barbados,” written while descending on a plane into Barbados, closes the album in motion.

Dynasty follows the Fuller Sound concept with greater focus and clarity. Fuller is a Grammy-nominated alto saxophonist whose album Diamond Cut earned a nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and whose career spans leading roles in jazz alongside global touring with Beyoncé.

Shamie, praised by The New York Times as “a rhythmic vanguardist,” is a composer and educator whose work appears on Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy-winning album The New Standard and whose commissions and teaching have shaped contemporary jazz practice.

Produced by Tia and executive produced by Cory Weeds, Dynasty is not a retrospective or a memorial. It is a present-tense document — music shaped by family, shared memory, and a lifetime of making music together.