# CD review: Rufus Reid with Sullivan Fortner – It’s the Nights I Like – 2024: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2024/06/18/cd-review-rufus-reid-sullivan-fortner-its-the-nights-i-like-2024-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2024-06-18T00:04:51+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**The mastery of an instrument or a musical language doesn’t necessarily mean that
a musician must be frivolous in performance with displays of their masterful technique
or engagement in superfluous overplaying. Sometimes it is the restraint that shows
the maturity and taste of a performer. Rufus Reid and Sullivan Fortner are musicians
who have the easy ability to astonish but show their class in their control.**

Of course, Reid has been acknowledged as one of the best bassists in jazz for decades,
leaving him nothing more to prove. The heralded young pianist, Sullivan Fortner,
has a maturity beyond his years and the pairing of the two allows for music making
of the highest caliber. Their duo recording, It’s The Nights I Like, shows just 
what kind of magic can made without resorting to histrionics and letting the music
shine.

Reid has long been making music with ensembles of all sizes, not limited to small
groups but even for jazz orchestras that he composes for. His artistry has never
been limited by ensemble and when he was invited to record an album for Elan Mehler
and Newvelle Records in 2019, Reid decided to partner with Sullivan with whom he
had been introduced a couple years before after the pianist had won the 2015 American
Jazz Pianists Competition.

In July of 2019, the duo recorded an album at Eastside Sound in New York City that
was released the next year on Newvelle. It’s The Nights I Like issues this material
digitally for the first time along with two bonus tracks that were live streamed
in concert on April 23, 2021.

The music the duo prepared is a mixture of Reid’s originals and standards or canonical
pieces from jazz’s greatest composers, including Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus,
and Charlie Parker.

The recording begins with Reid’s “Always In The Moment,” a serene ballad where the
bass and piano play a thoughtful counterpoint, which is followed by the bassist’s
enticing waltz, “I Can’t Explain.” Reid and Fortner perform Charlie Parker’s playful“
Big Foot” melody in unison before breaking into a strolling swing. Charles Mingus’s“
Duke Ellington Sound of Love” pays homage to the great jazz composer and is led 
by Reid’s bold, resonant bass before Fortner settles in.

The pace quickens on the album’s track, an upbeat samba rhythm propelling the duo.
Reid performs Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” solo, his woody bass sings a
gorgeous basso profundo. From the later recording, Burwell and Parish’s standard“
Sweet Loraine” is tender and coy but with a dash of mischief, while Reid’s “Reminiscing”
is bluesy with a tasteful swagger.

Written for his son, Reid’s “The Meddler” is an eccentrically offbeat tune that 
could have come from the pen of Monk. Jimmy Rowles’s “The Peacocks” gets a beautiful
rendition with both performers performing at their most connected. Reid’s fun “Come
Out and Play” has the pair matching up in a unison game of keep up. The recording
concludes with Eubie Blake’s “Memories of You,” done in a sedate but intriguing 
version with Reid’s bass in the lead.

While the sounds of contemporary jazz are full of tremendous musicians doing near
impossible feats on their instrument, it is nice to be reminded of the magic in 
two great musicians listening to one another and taking time to make well-conceived
songs on stage or recording. Rufus Reid and Sullivan Fortner have made a tremendous
album on It’s The Nights I Like that’s statement bears true artistic weight.

1. Always in the Moment (4:32)
 2. I Can’t Explain (5:49) 3. Big Foot (4:18) 4. 
Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (4:42) 5. It’s the Nights I Like (2:57) 6. Sophisticated
Lady (4:08) 7. Sweet Loraine (7:12) 8. Reminiscing (3:13) 9. The Meddler (4:31) 
10. The Peacocks (5:16) 11. Come Out and Play (5:10) 12. Memories of You (2:57)

**Sullivan Fortner – piano**
 **Rufus Reid – bass**

![It's The Nights I Like | Rufus Reid with Sullivan Fortner | Sunnyside Records](
https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.com/img/a1819851270_10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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