Craig Taborn / Peter Evans

pianist sullivan fortner describes his core principles as a belief in swing and the power and majesty of the blues. his talent became apparent while playing in the king solomon baptist church in new orleans. for years he accompanied star players of american jazz such as roy hargrove, christian scott, and stefon harris. through that he developed his versatile and virtuosic style. now he will come to the fore with his trio, which was voted rising star jazz group of the year in the most recent downbeat critics poll. sullivan fortner won a grammy for his contribution to the window, the album that he created with the young jazz diva cécile mclorin salvant. together they gave a memorable duo performance on our stage. he also played here with roy hargrove, john scofield, peter bernstein, and ben wendel. previously he has reached the top position in the downbeat critics polls in no less than three categories: rising star jazz artist, rising star pianist and rising star arranger. the new album by the sullivan fortner trio will appear on the artwork/pias label. ‘the goal is to start to break the barriers of genre. i’m trying to dispel all of these rules and say, “look at these songs as just songs and look at music as just music. get your hands dirty with deconstructing things, with reconstructing things.” we definitely have a good time with it’ (sullivan fortner in an interview with downbeat, september 2024).