Sullivan Fortner
Matrix Page
Curation & Recommendations...of and for musicians, writers, academics, painters, choreographers, filmmakers, theater directors, sound and set designers, chefs...
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Sullivan Fortner
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City/Place:
New Orleans, Louisiana
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Country:
United States
Life & Work
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Bio:
Renowned for his improvisational prowess, Fortner has captivated audiences worldwide, gracing prestigious venues like Snug Harbor, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Lorraine’s, and The Jazz Playhouse in New Orleans, as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz Standard, and Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. He's been a featured artist at renowned festivals including Newport, Monterey, Discover, Tri-C, and Gillmore Keyboard. Notably, in 2019, Fortner brought his ensemble to the historic Village Vanguard for an unforgettable week-long residency, a performance he ingeniously adapted to a virtual format during the 2020 lockdown.
His studio recordings are equally impressive, contributing to acclaimed albums such as Etienne Charles’s "Kaiso" (Culture Shock, 2011), Donald Harrison’s "Quantum Leap" (FOMP, 2010), and Theo Croker’s "The Fundamentals" (Left Sided Music, 2007).
Whether commanding the stage solo or leading an orchestra, Fortner's musical expression delves deep into harmony and rhythm with a blend of curiosity and clarity. Rooted in his upbringing in New Orleans, where he began tinkling the ivories at the tender age of 7, Fortner draws from a rich lineage of improvisational masters and blues virtuosos. His academic credentials boast a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music (MSM).
Fortner is not only a virtuoso performer but also a dedicated mentor, sharing his expertise through masterclasses at esteemed institutions such as MSM, NOCCA, Purdue University, Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, Belmont University, and Oberlin Conservatory.
His artistic vision blends tradition with innovation, seamlessly weaving together diverse musical styles in ways that are soul-stirring and inventive. Recognized by esteemed publications from The New York Times to The Root, Fortner's impact extends beyond the stage. His achievements include the 2015 Cole Porter Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2016 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, and the prestigious 2020 Shifting Foundation Grant for artistic career development.
Contact Information
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Management/Booking:
For booking , please contact:
Chris Mees (B Natural Management)
[email protected]
Clips (more may be added)
From here the world opens up to itself...
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze: manager, Kamasi Washington
🔗connections from Kamasi include ↓
Susan Rogers
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
🔗connections from Susan include ↓
Randy Brecker
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
🔗connections from Randy include ↓
Herbie Hancock
🔗connections from Herbie include ↓
Alfredo Rodrigues
🔗connections from Alfredo include ↓
Munir Hossn
🔗connections from Munir include ↓
Roberto Mendes
🔗connections from Roberto include ↓
Maria Bethânia
🔗connections from Maria include ↓
J. Velloso
🔗connections from J. include ↓
João do Boi ↓
🔗You've been taken from LA, Grammys and success, into profoundly unknown cultural genius in a place you never would have gotten to otherwise. There are millions of pathways like this...
Laroyê!
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd-Webber: UK's premier cellist; brother of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad: Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals: World's premier klezmer violinist
...uncoiling from the sprawling cultural matrix of Terra Brasilis: Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian... step-by-step-by-step...
...conceived in a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the slums of Kingston to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...
...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré (whose career was destroyed and who was threatened with death under Brazil's dictatorship, forcing him into exile), and who, in consideration of all the above, proffered for the ages: "Where there's misery there's music!" Thus this matrix.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome: Salvador da Bahia, seat of the Integrated Global Creative Economy* (and where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where the matrix was built in the record shop below).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano Veloso, son of the Recôncavo, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
Pardal/Sparrow, David Dye & Kim Junod (NPR/WXPN)
*Darius Mans became President of Africare on January 4, 2010. Prior to joining Africare, he served as Acting Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Previously, he was Vice President in the Department of Compact Development, where he oversaw the strategic and operational approaches of MCC in its compact implementation portfolio and collaborated with government agencies and donors to develop operations that reduce poverty through economic growth.
Before joining MCC he was Director with the World Bank Institute in Washington D.C.. From 2000 to 2004, he served as the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique and Angola. In that capacity, he led a team which generated $150 million in annual lending to Mozambique, including support for public private partnerships in infrastructure that catalyzed over $1 billion in private investment.
Prior to the World Bank, he was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the U.S. Treasury and the IMF to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile.
He also taught Economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, and lives between Washington D.C. and Salvador da Bahia.
The Matrix is a small world network in which creators may connect to (recommend) other creators and be connected to by other creators. And where, like stars coalescing into a galaxy, creators in the Matrix mathematically gravitate to proximity to all other creators in the Matrix, no matter how far apart in location, fame or society. This gravity is called "the small world phenomenon".
Wolfram MathWorld on the Small World Phenomenon
Matemática Wolfram sobre o Fenômeno do Mundo Pequeno
While the Matrix's utilization of small world gravity is unprecedented (position everybody in the creative universe within discoverable range of everybody else in the creative universe), small world networks are all around us, even inside us: our brains contain small world networks. Humanity itself is a small world network, wherein over 8 billion human beings average 6 or fewer steps between any two given people, anywhere. Those steps are seldom all transitable though. In the Matrix they are. In a small world great things are possible.
Recommend somebody and you will appear on that person's page. Somebody recommends you and they will appear on your page.
Both pulled by the inexorable mathematical gravity of the small world phenomenon to within range of everybody inside.
And by logical extension, to within range of all humanity outside as well.
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.