In jazz it is like in literature. People get better with age because they have more stories to tell. So it’s a rarity to come across the debut album of a 22-year-old playing with the maturity of London pianist Sultan Stevenson. He called his debut “Faithful One” (Whirlwind). The believer. Because he is one, and so he draws on that belief throughout the album. Judging by the titles, his compositions could be gospel songs. “Prayer”, “Thank You, Thank You God”, “He Has Made Me Whole”. The album title comes from the letters to the Romans. But that is only the spiritual foundation, which Stevenson does not lie in the search for meaning of John and Alice Coltrane or Albert Ayler, as in the case of his contemporaries, but in his Christianity. Because spirituality in jazz has always been a question of identity rather than faith, you wouldn’t even notice it for a second if you hadn’t read the titles.
Strong Jazz Debut: Sultan Stevenson – Kultur
