Spivey Hall
Morrow, GA – USA
March 23, 2025
Sullivan Fortner, piano; Tyrone Allen, bass; Kayvon Gordon, drums.
Mike Shaw | 28 MAR 2025
On Sunday, March 23, one of the finest concert halls anywhere played host to one of the finest musicians anywhere. Sullivan Fortner is widely acclaimed as one of if not the most accomplished of living jazz pianists, and the celebrated acoustics of Spivey Hall gave everyone fortunate enough to be in the audience the opportunity to hear exactly why he is afforded such an accolade.
It’s probably unfair to refer to Fortner as a jazz pianist. Certainly the genre is jazz, innovation and improvisation in every phrase, but his work goes well beyond what is already a borderless genre. The classical phrases he inserted into his interpretations were executed with the skill of a Bronfman. A left hand furiously active and precise, a right hand that played chord arpeggios with the alacrity and precision of single notes, polyrhythms masterfully blended: from the complex dissonance of his opening salvo of harmonies to the delicate expressions in the standard “My One and Only Love,” the evening proved a rare treat for an audience, which, not surprisingly, included a host of admiring musicians, including Kevin Bales and Joe Alterman, premier jazz pianists in their own right.
“Everything about what he does is fresh, refreshing, deeply musical, and builds on and adds to the already rich tradition of the music,” Alterman said. “Sullivan’s technique is beyond almost anything I’ve heard and can imagine, but it’s all a means to a beautiful and musical end. I feel that he is one of the all-time greats, and we’re lucky to be able to hear him live.”
Keeping up with Fortner alone would take more than the average musician could muster. But beyond just staying with the rhythms and harmonies, Fortner’s whims and fancies, bassist Tyrone Allen and drummer Kayvon Gordon were also brilliant, altogether more than worthy of the recognition the trio has received as the 2024 DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Jazz Group.
Growing up in New Orleans, Fortner reflects the city and its music, a mix of blues and jazz laden with improvisation evident throughout his playing. He began playing piano at age 7, the beginning of not only the emergence of a rare talent but a serious commitment to his art. Fortner earned his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music (MSM). An educator and champion of mentorship, he has delivered master classes at MSM, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Purdue University, Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, Belmont University, and Oberlin Conservatory, where he held a faculty position and, in 2023, returned as a visiting professor of jazz piano.
Fortner’s creative collaborations include work with such diverse voices as Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, Etienne Charles, and John Scofield. His awards and accolades are innumerable.
Fortner’s selections for the evening served to conclusively demonstrate his virtuosity and versatility. They included pieces from his latest album, Southern Nights. On “Tres Palabras,” he blends Cuban rhythms with his modern jazz approach, particularly the polyrhythms, his left hand locked in ostinatos, his right reshaping melody, time, and expression. His aptly named “9 Bar Tune” rides along a most unusual 9-bar structure, giving it, as a reviewer described, an “unpredictable feel.”
The album title is a tribute to the 1975 release by the New Orleans composer/performer/producer Allan Toussaint.
“I was a big fan of Allen Toussaint’s ‘Southern Nights’ when it came out in 1975,” Fortner notes. “I loved how it blended New Orleans rhythm and blues with a hazy, reverb-laden production. His voice was soft and intimate, almost conversational; he wasn’t trying to belt it out. Instead, it felt like he was sharing a personal memory, speaking more than singing, like he was taking you back home with him.”
So, too, the evening with the Fortner trio was an intimate conversation. And not just musically. At each break, after one or more tunes, Fortner would swing around on his stool, let his hands hang between the folds of his kaftan-like skirt, and address the audience like we were sitting with him in his living room. He introduced “My One and Only Love” by reciting the lyrics, the entire lyrics, and shared stories from the trio’s recent road trip, the most entertaining of which was a discussion among them of the relative merits of the music of Michael Jackson and Prince.
Drummer Gordon’s proclamation that Michael Jackson was better than Prince had been met with the others’ disbelief, a position also vocalized by many in the audience. But, Fortner related, after two days locked in his hotel room binging on Prince, Gordon emerged to agree with his mates, which led to the final selection of the night, Prince’s “Beautiful Ones.”
And when the trio returned for an encore after a thunderous ovation, and Fortner asked the audience for requests, among which was “a Michael Jackson song,” then specifically “I Can’t Help It,” Fortner clarified, “It’s actually a Stevie Wonder song,” and the trio played an on-the-spot arrangement that sounded like the song was already on their playlist. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Sullivan Fortner: sullivanfortnermusic.com
- Spivey Hall: spiveyhall.org
Read more by Mike Shaw.
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