‘For this record, I took an edible and said, screw it’: jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner on confronting the trauma of Hurricane Katrina

<p>The New Orleans native is a three-time Grammy winner at the top of his game – and is now using his instinctive style to celebrate the resilience and clarity of Katrina survivors</p><p>‘Black music is forward <em>and</em> upward in movement, you know? Never forward <em>or </em>upward,” pianist Sullivan Fortner declares. “It’s a tornado that’s always getting bigger and moving faster,” he adds, whizzing his fingers around with delight.</p><p>On a video call between sets at Rotterdam’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/03/50-years-north-sea-jazz-festival-ray-charles-etta-james-herbie-hancock-miles-davis">North Sea jazz festival</a>, the 39-year-old speaks like he plays, with quirkiness, subtlety and mischief. A three-time Grammy winner – including for 2025’s Southern Nights – Fortner also recently received the Larry J Bell award, a prize of $300,000 (£225,000) given every four years to a standout jazz pianist, which gave him the confidence to present an all-encompassing version of himself on Leave That in There, his sixth album. “I’ve tried the self-editing way,” he says of previous albums involving multiple takes and endless post-production tinkering. “For this record, I took an edible and I just said, screw it.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/aug/10/jazz-pianist-sullivan-fortner-leave-that-in-there-katrina-new-orleans">Continue reading...</a>