At last year’s GRAMMYs – the annual ceremony run by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognise outstanding achievements in the music industry – Sullivan Fortner received the award in the ‘Best Arrangement Instrument & Vocals’ category for the song ‘Optimistic Voices / No Love No Dying’, sung by the celebrated jazz vocalist and his fellow American, Cécile McLorin Salvant with whom Fortner has regularly worked in partnership over the past few years.
This GRAMMY was the latest in a long and illustrious line of prestigious awards and accolades achieved by Sullivan Fortner including the 2015 Cole Porter Fellowship awarded by the American Pianists Association, Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2016 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and, in 2020, the Shifting Foundation Grant for artistic career development, all of which recognise his exceptional work as a pianist, composer, band leader, and musical collaborator.
But the man from New Orleans by way of New York City is flying solo on this trip, just him and his Steinway piano. And Leeds is one of only two dates on this visit to the UK – London being the other, tomorrow night – further illustrating the Howard Assembly Room’s reputation and prestige in continuing to attract internationally renowned performers to this exceptional concert space in the north of England.
In answering a question you suspect he has been asked hundreds of times before, Sullivan Fortner says that playing solo is just like getting back on a horse. However, there is absolutely no evidence to support his suggestion that it’s all a little bit awkward to start with, as he commands the stage from the very outset, exuding confidence and poise as he opens with ‘It’s A Game’ from his most recent album, Solo Game. Stripped here of any additional studio adornment, the deeper sensitivity, humanity and fluidity of his playing is quickly revealed.
Often referred to as a jazz pianist, this rather myopic description of Sullivan Fortner and the music that he creates is surely far too one-dimensional. As the first half of this evening’s performance develops he also embraces ragtime, blues, gospel, and the universal sounds of his hometown of New Orleans. He invests Irving Berlin’s ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ with an exquisite playfulness whilst on the Cole Porter classic ‘Love For Sale’ his fingers positively dance across the keys as he hammers out a glorious groove.
After the interval, Sullivan Fortner begins with another Cole Porter standard, ‘From This Moment On’ and again confirms his capacity for experimentation. He is not scared to take chances whilst still remaining true to the broadest parameters of the song. ‘I’m Getting Sentimental Over You’ – first recorded by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra nearly 100 years ago – has still got that swing, but in Fortner’s investigative hands it is transformed into a beautifully improvised piece for the modern day.
Sullivan Fortner returns for an encore in celebration of the fact that next month will mark the 125th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s birth by playing what he refers to as a “smash up” of the late, great jazz pianist and band leader’s ‘Single Petal of a Rose’ and ‘The Star-Crossed Lovers’ (which Ellington co-wrote with Billy Strayhorn). It is a thing of quite spontaneous beauty and draws to a close what has surely been one of the truly great performances to which this wonderful venue has bore witness.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Sullivan Fortner at Howard Assembly Room
