Southern Nights has been nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the 68th GRAMMY® Awards.
Sullivan Fortner, the celebrated pianist-composer and two-time GRAMMY® winner, is celebrating his fifth career GRAMMY® nomination for Southern Nights in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category. Released on February 14, 2025 via Artwork Records, Southern Nights showcases Fortner’s artistry at its peak, in the company of the great Peter Washington on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums.
Recorded during an unforgettable weeklong residency at New York’s iconic Village Vanguard in the summer of 2023, the album was tracked live in the studio with no isolation, edits, or retakes, the album channels the immediacy, spontaneity, and electricity of the trio’s Vanguard performances. Its wide-ranging repertoire includes works by Allen Toussaint and Clifford Brown; tributes to Fortner’s late mentor Bill Lee and Lee’s sister, educator Consuela Lee; and an original composition from Fortner himself.
“It is a wonderful document of one of our true rising stars on the piano and a trio that refines its presentation with each live performance,” wrote DownBeat Magazine. The Times awarded the album four stars, while the Financial Times noted that Fortner “crafts disparate influences into a set laden with emotional warmth.”
Reflecting on the nomination, Fortner shares: “I extend gratitude to members of the Recording Academy for this year’s nomination, and to my label, PIAS/Artwork. It is an incredible honor to be recognized and I’m truly humbled by the acknowledgement and opportunity.”
Fortner’s remarkable career includes previous GRAMMY® wins for The Window, his duo album with Cécile McLorin Salvant (2018), and for Best Jazz Performance for “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” on Samara Joy’s A Joyful Holiday (2023). His past nominations span Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for “Optimistic Voices / No Love Dying” from Salvant’s Ghost Song (2022) and Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his solo project Solo Game (2023). Recently, he became the inaugural recipient of the Gilmore Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award.
Sullivan Fortner joins an esteemed list of nominees in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category. The 68th GRAMMY® Awards will take place on February 1, 2026.