Sullivan Fortner - Solo Game [2CD]

Artwork Records

£15.68

Format: 2CD
Catalogue No.: ARTR005CD
Barcode: 5400863141394
Release Date: 17 Nov 2023
Genre: Jazz

 Sullivan Fortner’s peers are unanimous: he’s one of the most brilliant pianists of his generation, and now he’s releasing ‘Solo Game’, a particularly stimulating double album presented in the eclectic style he openly accepts, and in many aspects, it has the
sound of a genuine aesthetic manifesto. It is a fantastic solo opus and, as if reflected in a mirror, it traces erudite paths through the history of jazz piano.
 Yet at the same time, it is an experimental piece of electroacoustic music that surprises constantly, remaining almost impossible to situate with precision. This is a hybrid collection that gives Fortner the opportunity to conduct a malicious dialogue between tradition(s) and the modern; he picks up two active principles that we sometimes tend to forget and replaces them at the heart of jazz and its poetry: the taking of risks and, especially, the taste for playing games.
 These are the dynamics of this new ‘Solo Game’ that Sullivan Fortner has clearly conceived as a fusion: between a ‘Solo’ part that mixes humility, maturity and audacity in respecting the great tradition of the solo piano, and a ‘Game’ part that
develops a magical, playful universe from a multitude of keyboards and electronic effects, a universe that experiments with new relationships between composition and improvisation.
 Conceived in close collaboration with fellow pianist Fred Hersch, who defined its rules and became its artistic director, ‘Solo Game’ is an event in itself because it marks Sullivan Fortner’s great debut on record in an exercise that has always contained the perils of the absolute solo and can be so decisive in one’s career. The material chosen is a subtle cocktail - standards that are rare and themes that borrow from a great variety of styles - and the choice was made in several stages.
 With this exuberant, totally free work, Sullivan Fortner reminds us that testing one’s limits, challenging oneself, experimenting, improvising, and daring with no self-censorship, will always be the principal virtues of any creator worthy of the name - and in doing so he reveals the least civilised part of his protean music universe.

Tracklisting
CD1
Don’t You Worry About a Thing
I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
Congolese Children
I’m All Smiles
Invitation
Once I loved
Cute
This Is New
Come Sunday
CD2
Power Mode
It’s a Game
Snakes And Ladders
Hounds and Jackal
King’s Table
Stag
Cross and Circle
Space Walk
Valse du petit chien
Fred Hersch, notes on
Solo
Jason Moran, notes on Game