Sullivan Fortner

Kayvon Gordon, drums | Tyrone Allen, bass For more than a decade, GRAMMY Award-winning artist Sullivan Fortner has garnered international praise as a leader and a fierce collaborator. Recipient of the 2026 Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award, he earned the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance on Samara Joy’s “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” and the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album alongside Cécile McLorin Salvant for her acclaimed album The Window. His fundamentals as a player could hardly be stronger, and his instincts as a composer and bandleader are almost startlingly mature.” — The New York Times Fortner also has earned GRAMMY nods for his 2023 release Solo Game and his provocative arrangement of “Optimistic Voices/No Love Dying” from Salvant’s 2022 release Ghost Song. As a solo leader he has issued Aria (2015); Moments Preserved (2018); Solo Game (2024), which earned 4-star reviews in DownBeat and France’s Telerama Magazine; and Southern Nights (2025) which landed Fortner on the February cover of DownBeat. Winner of the 2024 DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Jazz Group: Sullivan Fortner Trio, the prolific artist has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, Etienne Charles and John Scofield; frequent collaborators have included Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefon Harris, Kassa Overall, Tivon Pennicott, Peter Bernstein, Nicholas Payton, Billy Hart, Gary Bartz, Chief Adjuah and the late Roy Hargrove. He earned his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and has taught at MSM, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Purdue University, Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, Belmont University and Oberlin Conservatory. Fortner has performed at Snug Harbor, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Lorraine’s and The Jazz Playhouse in New Orleans, and The Village Vanguard, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz Standard and…