TLI Jazz: Sullivan Fortner Trio

Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning
For more than a decade, recipient of the 2026 Bell Jazz Artist Award 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. His eponymous trio, which features Tyrone Allen and Kayvon Gordon, won the 2024 DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Jazz Group.

“Fortner beautifully, slowly and deliberately asks the eternal question of the essence of love — his notes dance, come to a halt and resume the twirls.”

— OffBeat Magazinee.