Lakecia Benjamin, Sullivan Fortner, Tyreek McDole, Davell Crawford + Georgia Heers Presented by NYC Winter Jazzfest

<p>&nbsp; </p>Across his career he has performed and recorded with artists including Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, John Scofield, Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefon Harris, Fred Hersch, Chief Adjuah and the late Roy Hargrove. <br>Fortner began playing piano at seven in New Orleans, growing within a musical culture in which rhythm, improvisation, blues and individual expression remain inseparable. <br>He later earned his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music. That combination of lineage and rigorous study continues to inform a musical language that respects tradition without treating it as fixed. <br>Whether working with a trio, accompanying a vocalist, performing solo or expanding the piano through electronics and other sound sources, Fortner approaches music as an active field of discovery. <br>That exploratory impulse is particularly apparent in Solo Game, where Fortner works alone in the studio while extending his musical vocabulary far beyond the conventional boundaries of solo piano. <br>Fortner’s curiosity extends naturally to his work as an educator and mentor. He has taught and presented masterclasses at institutions including Manhattan School of Music, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Purdue University, Belmont University and Oberlin Conservatory, where he has served on the faculty and returned as visiting professor of jazz piano. <br>His relationship to the music is rooted not simply in technical command, but in sustained engagement with its history, language and evolving possibilities. <p><br></p>