NINE-TIME GRAMMY®-NOMINATED VOCALIST
TIERNEY SUTTON TEAMS WITH ACCLAIMED PIANIST
TAMIR HENDELMAN FOR THEIR FIRST STUDIO RECORDING
SPRING
Sutton’s 17th Album as a Leader or Co-Leader | Releasing April 3, 2026 on BFM Jazz
“The seamless exchanges between these two created a symbiosis that lifted each number to sublime levels.”
With nine GRAMMY® nominations and widespread critical acclaim for both her recordings and live performances, TIERNEY SUTTON has earned a place among the most revered voices in contemporary jazz. The New York Times has hailed her as “one of the most-lauded jazz vocalists of her generation.”
Renowned as a master storyteller and one of the finest interpreters of the Great American Songbook, Sutton’s artistry extends far beyond any single tradition. Her recordings reflect an expansive musical curiosity, bringing her singular voice to works by composers ranging from Gershwin, Jobim, and Bill Evans to modern icons such as Sting and Joni Mitchell. Clint Eastwood selected Sutton and her band to provide the music for his film Sully and has described Sutton as “my favorite singer.”
Sutton now adds a new chapter to her distinguished recording career with SPRING, her 17th album as leader or co-leader and first voice-and-piano duo project. While The Tierney Sutton Band has been a mainstay on the international jazz scene for nearly 30 years, Sutton has long been drawn to the intimacy of smaller settings. With SPRING, she sought to capture the freedom, immediacy, and spontaneity that define her duo performances, partnering with longtime collaborator and pianist TAMIR HENDELMAN.
An award-winning jazz pianist, Hendelman has performed and recorded with an extraordinary roster of artists, including the Jeff Hamilton Trio, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, James Moody, Terell Stafford, Benny Golson, Houston Person, Paul McCartney, and Natalie Cole. He leads his own acclaimed trio, touring extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. A highly sought-after pianist, composer, and arranger, Hendelman has received honors from ASCAP and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. In 2009, he appeared on Barbra Streisand’s Love Is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall, as well as the chart-topping DVD One Night Only, recorded live at the legendary Village Vanguard. Sutton says, “There are only a couple of pianists I really love to work with in a duo setting. Tamir is one of my favorites. He’s an encyclopedia of songs, and nobody swings harder.”
The music on SPRING captures the effortless rapport between two jazz masters. Hendelman notes, “Tierney is such a sensitive interpreter of the lyrics, but she uses her voice like an instrument—she has great chops, and the way she interacts with everything I do is like walking a highwire.” Soulful and swinging, Sutton’s singing is
marked by impeccable phrasing and a deep respect for the lyrics, while Hendelman’s virtuosity always serves the song and the singer.
The idea for a duo album blossomed after a series of live performances. “There’s a lot of freedom in the duo format,” Sutton explains. “It allows for more flexibility with phrasing and melody, and we wanted to record the live show we’d been doing on the road—with a great piano and great sound in a great studio.” Recorded essentially as a live set, the arrangements are intentionally loose, giving the music room to unfold in the moment. The result is an intimate musical conversation—easy, fluid, and deeply present.
Created during uncertain and challenging times, SPRING was conceived as a balm for collective unease. Sutton chose the season as a metaphor for renewal and hope, while acknowledging that growth often carries a bittersweet edge. “I don’t believe you can make art without at least a nod to the moment you’re living in,” she says. True to form, her song selections explore spring from unexpected angles. Even “I Get Along Without You Very Well” hints at a more nuanced, even melancholy relationship to the season.
The album opens with Jobim’s “Double Rainbow,” introduced by a lush piano prelude before Sutton enters with an ethereal vocalization. Her inventive arrangement of “Waters of March” brings fresh vitality to the lyric-dense classic. Sutton and Hendelman transform Paul Simon’s “April Come She Will” into a tender meditation and bring playful charm and virtuosic interplay to Gershwin’s “S’Wonderful.” Peggy Lee’s “Things Are Swinging” sparkles with wit and bounce and features an extended solo by Hendelman that is likely to be transcribed and studied by future generations of aspiring pianists. Dori Caymmi’s gorgeous “Spring” receives a deeply moving interpretation and Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman’s classic “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” whose title was inspired by the first line of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – “April is the cruelest month” — becomes especially poignant through Sutton’s conversational delivery.
“Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” turns the idea of renewal on its head, yet Sutton and Hendelman’s gently swinging version offers warmth and optimism. The rarely recorded “Spring, Spring, Spring” is Johnny Mercer’s master class in lyric-writing and was introduced to Sutton by Alan and Marilyn Bergman one evening over dinner. Sutton’s close relationship with the Oscar-winning lyricists spanned over 25 years and so it seems fitting that the album’s final track, “You Must Believe in Spring,” features a previously unheard verse by the Bergmans, underscoring her belief that it is one of the greatest songs ever written, and surely the greatest song ever written about spring. The album’s bonus track is a rapid-fire “L.O.V.E.”—an improvisational tour de force and fitting exclamation point to a project rooted in hope and renewal.
After decades of collaboration, Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman share an intuitive, nearly telepathic connection. With SPRING, they distill that chemistry to its purest form—two artists, one piano, and an intimate conversation that reminds us that music can feel like renewal itself.