GREGORY PORTER
The capped crusader of jazz digs oriental blues, righteous message songs, and a forgotten soundtrack crooner.
The bonneted jazz nabob selects exquisite pieces of the vocal art to blow the most experienced of musical minds.
1 ETTA JONES MR. BOJANGLES (From Always In Our Hearts, High Note, 2004)
“I first heard this on a jukebox in St Nick’s Pub in Harlem some years ago and thought it was amazing. The song is so well-known because of Sammy Davis Jr, but it’s really cool to hear a woman do it, with a unique style and delivery. People don’t know her. When you say Etta Jones, they say, ‘Don’t you mean Etta James?’ She has a piercing, clear quality like Dinah Washington but her voice was so personal. When you hear her sing, it’s almost like you’re talking with her on the phone.”
2 GRADY TATE SACK FULL OF DREAMS (From Windmills Of My Mind, Skye, 1968)
“Donny Hathaway did it, but Grady Tate did it first. His version is very cool. He was a drummer and a singer. I met him around 2000 – though I never sang with him – he said, ‘I’ve got a song that I think would be really good for you.’ It’s optimistic and the message is that you can make it and dream of something better. There’s a rich, conversational quality to his voice. I love it when somebody surprises you by singing and communicating musically.”
3 EARL GRANT IMITATION OF LIFE (From Imitation Of Life: The Soundtrack, Decca, 1959)
“This was the theme song to one of my favourite movies, Imitation Of Life. It’s about race and class. You have to do a double take when you hear it. You think: is that a Nat ‘King’ Cole tune I haven’t heard before? No, it’s Earl Grant. He was a disciple of Nat in terms of his style and sound, that’s what initially grabbed me. He had the phrasing of Nat ‘King’ Cole – and played piano like Nat – but there were certain things that he couldn’t do that Nat did, like sliding up to a note gently.”
4 ABBEY LINCOLN LONG AS YOU’RE LIVING (From Abbey Is Blue, Riverside, 1959)
“This is a great message song that starts with Abbey singing, ‘Forgive me if I seem to preach.’ She’s talking about not wasting the moments of your life and telling you to always live life to the fullest and the freest. She was connected to the civil rights movement and was trying to give the young African- American population a motivational song and to uplift everyone who had been devastated by racial discrimination. She always wrote from a personal perspective and that influenced me a lot, especially when I wrote [2013 song] When Love Was King. Abbey was influenced by Billie Holiday, but she had her own cool thing going on.”
5 LEON THOMAS CHINA DOLL (From Blues And The Soulful Truth, Flying Dutchman, 1973)
“I first heard it when I was in college and was exploring ’70s spiritual jazz with a post-civil rights vibe. It’s not very PC in terms of the lyrics, to be honest, but the bass line is so funky. It’s about an Asian woman that he falls in love with. His mind is blown and he ends up singing that he’s ‘speaking Chinese.’ Stylistically, it’s in a place that’s in between soul, R&B, and jazz. Leon Thomas really was a totally unique singer. He had a wild jazz yodel and a big, bold barrel of a voice that was very much steeped in the blues. Since I heard it, in the years that followed, I’ve played with a lot of the musicians that worked with him.”