Sullivan Fortner’s 2025 stands as a defining chapter in an already remarkable career. The year brought a Grammy nomination for Southern Nights, a live-in-the-moment trio recording born from a spontaneous Village Vanguard engagement, captured in a single four-hour studio session. Alongside it came high-profile collaborations with Theo Croker, Kurt Elling, and Lauren Henderson, each revealing different facets of Fortner’s musical identity—from free-form duo exploration to intimate vocal-piano dialogue. The year’s biggest surprise was his selection as the first-ever jazz recipient of the Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award, a historic honor accompanied by a $300,000 prize. Grounded in gospel roots, shaped at NOCA and Oberlin, and refined through formative years with Roy Hargrove, Fortner embodies a lineage-driven approach that values listening, intuition, and trust. Despite the accolades, his perspective remains modest and forward-looking, focused on the music itself—and on what comes next.

“Ecclusiastics” and Charles Mingus (104)

Standards Rating 2, Difficulty Rating 7

“Ecclusiastics” offers a concentrated portrait of Charles Mingus’s artistic personality: volatile, spiritual, blues-soaked, and uncompromising. Drawing its title from the Jewish wisdom text attributed to Ben Sira, the piece reflects Mingus’s lifelong engagement with moral struggle, Black church traditions, and personal prophecy. Marked at an extremely slow ♩ = 52, the tune demands patience and emotional control, qualities Mingus valued deeply in his musicians. Its unusual ABC form, shifting meters, and harmonically restless language mirror his resistance to standardized jazz structures. On Oh Yeah (1962), Mingus performs on piano and vocalizes freely, calling out and humming like a preacher mid-sermon. This blurring of composition, improvisation, and embodied expression exemplifies his belief that jazz should confront, instruct, and testify. “Ecclusiastics” ultimately functions as both composition and sermon—an extension of Mingus’s artistic will.

Charles Mingus

Mingus Big Band

Spotify Playlist #2

“Easy To Love and Gene Ammons” (103)

Standards Rating 7, Difficulty Rating 5

“Easy to Love” is a model of Cole Porter’s understated brilliance: a 32-bar form with a spacious, lyrical melody and harmonies that move fluidly through ii–V progressions and subtle chromatic color. Its clarity and emotional openness have made it a durable jazz standard, adaptable to ballad, swing, or groove-based treatments without losing its essential elegance.

On Jug (1961), Gene Ammons reshapes the tune through a relaxed boogaloo feel, grounding Porter’s refinement in blues and rhythm. Ammons’ massive tenor sound, shaped by his Chicago roots and early work with Billy Eckstine’s band, favors melody, warmth, and direct communication. Despite career interruptions caused by incarceration, he remained one of Prestige Records’ most influential voices, bridging bebop sophistication and soul-jazz accessibility. His “Easy to Love” reflects that legacy perfectly—honoring the song’s structure while infusing it with groove, humanity, and unmistakable personal voice.

Gene Ammons

Ella Fitzgerald

Spotify Playlist #2