Sullivan Fortner Trio! - GRAMMY Winning PIANIST - COMPOSER - BANDLEADER

Sat, Mar 22

Goes on saleWed, Jan 15, 2025 @ 12:00 PM

Goes on saleWed, Jan 15, 2025 @ 12:00 PM

Sullivan Fortner Trio! - GRAMMY Winning PIANIST - COMPOSER - BANDLEADER Cover

Show Ticket $25 - $35 Dinner is required with all reservations. *6:30 PM SHOW - DINNER RESERVATIONS FROM 5:15 PM *9:00 PM SHOW - DINNER RESERVATIONS FROM 8:00 PM GRAMMY WINNING PIANIST - COMPOSER - BANDLEADER For more than a decade, Sullivan Fortner has been stretching deep-rooted talents as a pianist, composer, band leader and uncompromising individualist. The GRAMMY Award-winning artist and educator out of New Orleans received international praise as both key player and producer for his collaborative work on The Window, alongside Cecile McLorin Salvant, and earned a 2023 GRAMMY nomination for his provocative arrangement of “Optimistic Voices/No Love Dying” from her 2022 release Ghost Song. As a solo leader he has issued Aria (2015), Moments Preserved (2018) and Solo Game (2024) to critical acclaim, the lattermost receiving 4-star reviews in DownBeat and France’s Telerama Magazine. Slated for release in 2025, his forthcoming trio recording Southern Nights features Peter Washington and Marcus Gilmore. Winner of the 2024 DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Jazz Group: Sullivan Fortner Trio, the prolific artist has enjoyed creative associations with Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, Etienne Charles and John Scofield; his frequent and longtime collaborators have included Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefon Harris, Kassa Overall, Tivon Pennicott, Peter Bernstein, Nicholas Payton, Billy Hart, Gary Bartz, Chief Adjuah and the late Roy Hargrove. Playing solo or leading an orchestra, Fortner engages harmony and rhythmic ideas through curiosity and clarity. Coming up in New Orleans, he began playing piano at age 7, earning his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music (MSM). A champion of mentorship, Fortner has offered masterclasses at MSM, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Purdue University, Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, Belmont University and Oberlin Conservatory where he held a faculty position and subsequently returned as visiting professor of jazz piano. A highly-sought improviser, Fortner has performed at Snug Harbor, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Lorraine’s and The Jazz Playhouse in New Orleans, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz Standard and Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. He’s appeared at Newport, Monterey, Discover, Tri-C and Gillmore Keyboard jazz festivals. In 2019, Fortner brought his band to the historic Village Vanguard for a week-long engagement he would reprise in 2020 as a virtual performance during lockdown. His notable studio contributions include work on Etienne Charles’s Kaiso (Culture Shock, 2011), Donald Harrison’s Quantum Leap (FOMP, 2010), and Theo Croker’s The Fundamentals (Left Sided Music, 2007). Fortner’s artistry preserves the tradition and evolves the sound. He seeks connections among different musical styles that are at once deeply soulful and wildly inventive. Both his works and his insights have been featured in culture drivers from The New York Times to The Root. Further accolades include the 2015 Cole Porter Fellowship awarded by the American Pianists Association, Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2016 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the prestigious Shifting Foundation Grant in 2020 for artistic career development and the 2024 Western Jazz Presenters grant, which allowed him to tour the west coast with his trio.


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