Sullivan Fortner: Southern Nights

ARTWORK RECORDS (RELEASED FEBRUARY 14, 2025)

Pianist Sullivan Fortner had no idea a weeklong trio residency at The Village Vanguard would lead to his next album, but it did! According to Fortner, The Vanguard sessions were the first time that he, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Marcus Gilmore played together as a trio, and from the first note, it felt as if they had been doing so for years. So, that same week the three went into the studio to record Southern Nights. The recording captures the joy and energy of their live performances with an eclectic mix of tunes performed with no edits or retakes, just like they were still at The Vanguard! Fortner’s playing throughout the album is enticing, explosive, expansive and expressive. Fortner entices us into his funky, soulful version of Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights” by introducing the tune with plucked piano strings. He explodes with a flurry of runs and chord clusters as he skirts around the melody of Cole Porter’s “I Love You.” He expands the romantic bolero theme of Osvaldo Farres’ “Tres Palabras” with blues infections, new melodic themes and a call and response section where his right hand answers the patterns he delivers with his left hand (a technique he uses on several other tracks as well). He shows his expressive side on the beautiful ballad “Again Never,” written by bassist Bill Lee. The trio is in sync on those tunes as well as Fortner’s angular original “9 Bar Tune,” Donald Brown’s quirky “Waltz for Monk” and the soulful bouncy feel of Conusela Lee’s “Discovery.” Washington and Gilmore also do their fair share of enticing, exploding, expanding and expressing throughout the nine tunes on Southern Nights. Washington’s strong bass lines drive the trio’s take of Woody Shaw’s “Organ Grinder” and his solos on “Tres Palabras” and “Again Never” are sublime. Gilmore adds the ideal rhythmic punctuations throughout the session and kicks off Clifford Brown’s “Daahoud” with a well-articulated drum solo. I would imagine that listening to Southern Nights is like experiencing the immediacy and interplay of the trio’s live performances that inspired Fortner that week at The Village Vanguard.

BOTTOM LINE: Known for accompanying singers such as Cecile McLorin Salvant, Samara Joy and Lauren Henderson, Southern Nights is Sullivan Fortner’s first trio recording, firmly establishing him as an enticing, explosive, expansive and expressive player worthy of the praise he received for his 2024 Solo Games release.