For me, the highlight of tonight's Offbeat Jazz concert by pianist Sullivan Fortner’s trio with bassist Tyrone Allen II and drummer Kayvon Gordon was their performance of “Blue Lou”, a 1934 composition by Edgar Sampson (who also wrote “Stompin’ at the Savoy” in 1933) that Fortner and his bandmates knew from a 1936 recording by Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra. The piano trio performed it as a kaleidoscopic version of stride piano with bowed bass and drums played with brushes. They left themselves plenty of room for surprises and for the audience to tap their feet—or, in my case, to dance a little where I was standing by the soundboard. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 2 March 2026)

A blurry closeup of hands playing a piano and reflected above the keys, where a distorted of a hand holding a bow being used to play a bass is also visible. — Sullivan Fortner's hands and Tyrone Allen II's bow and hand reflected above the keys of the piano

“Blue Lou” by the Sullivan Fortner Trio with Tyrone Allen II and Kayvon Gordon, Atlantis, Basel, 2 March 2026