Sullivan Fortner

New Orleans-born, New York City-based pianist Sullivan Fortner is an adept, award-winning jazz musician and composer with a bent toward sophisticated post-bop. Since 2015, Fortner has built an impressive list of credits, performing and/or recording with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Theo Croker, saxophonist Donald Harrison, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove (for seven years), among others. In 2015, he won the American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz and released his acclaimed Impulse! debut, Aria. Hargrove joined him on 2018's Moments Preserved. The following year he joined guitarist Lage Lund's quartet for Terrible Animals alongside Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Larry Grenadier. Recorded in 2020 but unreleased until 2023, It's the Nights I Like was a duo set with bassist Rufus Reid recorded three years earlier. Also in 2023, he released the two-disc, piano-only Solo Game. Fortner, vocalist Kurt Elling, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Marcus Gilmore collaborated on the intimate Wildflowers, Vol. 1; it was recorded at the Village Vanguard in 2023 and released in February 2025. Fortner first began playing piano at age four and was playing in church groups by the time he was nine. At 13 he enrolled in the famed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) high school. As a teenager Fortner excelled at piano, earning scholarships to both the Vail Jazz Institute and Skidmore Jazz Studies summer programs. After graduating from NOCCA and his regular high school (where he was valedictorian), he perfected his craft by earning a bachelor's degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and, later, a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He made his recording debut on Theo Croker's The Fundamentals and In the Tradition in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Detroit vocalist Joan Belgrave hired him as her pianist for 2009's Excitable, alongside trumpeter-husband Marcus Belgrave and saxophonist Charlie Gabriel. In 2011 he appeared with Etienne Charles on Kaiso. In 2014 he served as Donald Harrison's pianist on Quantum Leap and rejoined Croker for Afro Physicist. Fortner signed with Impulse! and issued Aria, his leader debut, performing originals and standards with a quartet that included bassist Aidan Caroll, saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, and drummer Joe Dyson. In March, he won the coveted Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz award, and joined jazz singer Lauren Henderson for the first time on her self-released debut, Madrugada. The critical reviews of Aria, from Downbeat to the New York Times, celebrated the arrival of a new jazz piano star. Fortner joined jazz singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant on his widely celebrated Dreams and Daggers in 2017 and issued his sophomore Impulse! set, Moments Preserved, a year later with Hargrove as a guest. That year, Fortner also appeared on Paul Simon's In the Blue Light, and rejoined Salvant's band for The Window. The following year, the pianist joined Jazzmeia Horn's studio quartet for her breakthrough second album, Love and Liberation, and joined guitarist Lage Lund's all-star band on Terrible Animals for Criss Cross. Fortner was busy in 2019; he played on a handful of recordings by Henderson, Kassa Overall, Peter Bernstein, and Will Vinson. He capped off the year with bassist Rufus Reid on the Sunnyside duo album It's the Nights I Like. Fortner's consummate lyricism on the piano made him a favorite of jazz singers. In 2021 he accompanied Henderson on Musa and Horn on Dear Love, while 2022 saw his credits on recordings by Salvant (Ghost Song) and Judy Niemack's What's Love. Further, he appeared on saxophonist Melissa Aldana's 12 Stars alongside Lund, bassist Pablo Menares, and drummer Kush Abadey. The following year, Fortner issued Solo Game, a double-disc set chock-full of covers by everyone from Stevie Wonder and Kurt Weill to Randy Weston and Antonio Carlos Jobim. In addition to piano, he played organ, vibes, gong, bass drum, celeste, Moog, vocoder, hand percussion, and sang. Salvant was his only guest, providing vocals on two selections. The package included liner notes by mentors Jason Moran and Fred Hersch. In 2024, Fortner joined vocalist Kurt Elling on the impromptu duo set Wildflowers, Vol. 1. and Charles' band on Creole Orchestra. In February 2025, the pianist released Southern Nights for Artwork. It was recorded during his second residency at the Village Vanguard with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Gilmore. The recorded program was selected from Fortner's best performances across several nights. ~ Matt Collar & Thom Jurek, Rovi