Sullivan Fortner

New Orleans-born pianist Sullivan Fortner is an adept, award-winning jazz musician and composer with a bent toward sophisticated post-bop. Fortner has, since 2011, built an impressive list of credits, working with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, vocalist Theo Croker, and saxophonist Donald Harrison; he spent seven years with trumpeter Roy Hargrove. 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. He has collaborated on several albums with singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, including 2018's Grammy-winning The Window. Recorded in 2020 but unreleased until 2023, It's the Nights I Like was a duo set with bassist Rufus Reid cut three years prior. In 2024, Fortner and vocalist Kurt Elling collaborated on the intimate Wildflowers, Vol. 1. The live Southern Nights appeared in 2025, winning the Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album.