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Southern Nights
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Southern Nights
Current price: $18.99
Barnes and Noble
Southern Nights
Current price: $18.99
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In July 2023, New Orleans-born pianist and bandleader
Sullivan Fortner
played a weeklong residency at the Village Vanguard with bassist
Peter Washington
and drummer
Marcus Gilmore
. Before that series of gigs,
Washington
and
Gilmore
had worked with
Fortner
separately but had never met. Their chemistry on the bandstand proved infectious for audiences and the musicians.
booked studio time to try and catch lightning in a bottle. Before playing Saturday night, the trio entered Sear Sound on 48th Street and cut this set.
The joyous spirit of New Orleans music is at the heart of this recording. Opener "Southern Nights," composed by Crescent City's patron saint
Allen Toussaint
, was a hit for
Glen Campbell
in 1970 and the title track of
Toussaint
's glorious 1975
Warner Bros.
album. This version is airy and mimics
's original with an elliptical piano intro before setting its lithe, gospelized lope at the forefront.
grab on and swing the melody before adding a funky second-line twist. One can hear the NOLA piano lineage from
Huey Smith
Professor Longhair
to
Dr. John
James Booker
in
's playing. It's followed by
Cole Porter
's "I Love You," which commences with warm yet dissonant piano for a full minute before the rhythm section enters. They follow
's feints, fills, accents (on both hands), and a smoking solo.
On the remainder of the album, the pianist focuses on tunes that figure into his musical iconography, not standards. "9 Bar Tune," the lone original, is harmonically rich as the pianist and his trio knottily move across vanguard post-bop to swinging blues and soulful groove as if leading a parade. Iconic Cuban songwriter
Osvaldo Farrés
is represented by the haunting bolero "Tres Palabras," which includes a show-stopping bass solo from
. On
Donald Brown
's "Waltz for Monk,"
takes the building blocks of the harmony, juxtaposes his own, and breaks them up as the rhythm section buoys him with bluesy swing.
There are a pair of tunes here that came from
Spike Lee
's family: His father
Bill
's "Again, Never" illustrates
's endless fascination with ballads. He briefly channels "My Funny Valentine" in the intro before the trio begins getting inside its lyrics layer by layer. They also perform "Discovery" by
Consuela Lee
, the director's aunt. It opens with a solo piano before entering hard bop terrain.
's pianism underscores the Afro-Latin rhythmic tinge with
's syncopation and breaks. The last two tunes,
Clifford Brown
's "Daahoud" and
Woody Shaw
's "Organ Grinder," are advanced jazz compositions. The former offers a seamless meld of hard bop, NOLA R&B, and chromatic post-bop. On the latter,
illustrates
Shaw
's compositional savvy as the trio juxtaposes bebop with modal dissonance and lyricism under strategically syncopated swing. As evidenced by
Southern Nights
,
's trio has fully arrived. Here's hoping they record again and tour, as their creative language is seemingly limitless. ~ Thom Jurek
Sullivan Fortner
played a weeklong residency at the Village Vanguard with bassist
Peter Washington
and drummer
Marcus Gilmore
. Before that series of gigs,
Washington
and
Gilmore
had worked with
Fortner
separately but had never met. Their chemistry on the bandstand proved infectious for audiences and the musicians.
booked studio time to try and catch lightning in a bottle. Before playing Saturday night, the trio entered Sear Sound on 48th Street and cut this set.
The joyous spirit of New Orleans music is at the heart of this recording. Opener "Southern Nights," composed by Crescent City's patron saint
Allen Toussaint
, was a hit for
Glen Campbell
in 1970 and the title track of
Toussaint
's glorious 1975
Warner Bros.
album. This version is airy and mimics
's original with an elliptical piano intro before setting its lithe, gospelized lope at the forefront.
grab on and swing the melody before adding a funky second-line twist. One can hear the NOLA piano lineage from
Huey Smith
Professor Longhair
to
Dr. John
James Booker
in
's playing. It's followed by
Cole Porter
's "I Love You," which commences with warm yet dissonant piano for a full minute before the rhythm section enters. They follow
's feints, fills, accents (on both hands), and a smoking solo.
On the remainder of the album, the pianist focuses on tunes that figure into his musical iconography, not standards. "9 Bar Tune," the lone original, is harmonically rich as the pianist and his trio knottily move across vanguard post-bop to swinging blues and soulful groove as if leading a parade. Iconic Cuban songwriter
Osvaldo Farrés
is represented by the haunting bolero "Tres Palabras," which includes a show-stopping bass solo from
. On
Donald Brown
's "Waltz for Monk,"
takes the building blocks of the harmony, juxtaposes his own, and breaks them up as the rhythm section buoys him with bluesy swing.
There are a pair of tunes here that came from
Spike Lee
's family: His father
Bill
's "Again, Never" illustrates
's endless fascination with ballads. He briefly channels "My Funny Valentine" in the intro before the trio begins getting inside its lyrics layer by layer. They also perform "Discovery" by
Consuela Lee
, the director's aunt. It opens with a solo piano before entering hard bop terrain.
's pianism underscores the Afro-Latin rhythmic tinge with
's syncopation and breaks. The last two tunes,
Clifford Brown
's "Daahoud" and
Woody Shaw
's "Organ Grinder," are advanced jazz compositions. The former offers a seamless meld of hard bop, NOLA R&B, and chromatic post-bop. On the latter,
illustrates
Shaw
's compositional savvy as the trio juxtaposes bebop with modal dissonance and lyricism under strategically syncopated swing. As evidenced by
Southern Nights
,
's trio has fully arrived. Here's hoping they record again and tour, as their creative language is seemingly limitless. ~ Thom Jurek
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