Soul-jazz star mixes grit, grace
Soul-jazz great Gregory Porter’s sound spans the decades
My brain works subconsciously, so I’m sure some initial speeches of Donald Trump and the phrases that are used to excite emotions for political gain got to me.
Gregory Porter is a rarity, an original singer-songwriter who makes soul-jazz with authority, sounding classic and contemporary all at once.
His tunes are often about universal love but Porter draws from all avenues to catch the grace and grit of everyday life in song, finding street-smart soul in his versatile baritone. His occasional covers of tunes such as Work Song or The In Crowd speak volumes.
Performing since 2008, Porter just released his fourth album, the excellent Take Me To The Alley. But start with Liquid Spirit, the bestselling record that won him a Grammy for best jazz vocal album in 2014. At 44, he is probably the only jazz singer to collectively sell more than a million units since Diana Krall hit the scene.
Born and raised in California by his single-parent minister mother, Porter showed promise in college football before injuries ended his chances. A move to New York in 2004 found him working as a chef before he got into musical theatre and wrote his own successful show, Nat King Cole And Me: A Musical Healing.
The core band he’s now on tour with came together in Brooklyn clubs in 2008. Since then, the cap and head-stocking he wears to care for a skin condition have become his signature.
Q Was growing up with gospel music integral to setting your direction early on?
A It was, because the music was inescapable in our house, but I don’t think anyone thought then that I would have a career in music. So it didn’t shape my career but it informed the foundation.
Q When did you realize that music was it?
A In my later years of college I think it was healing from my mother’s passing, and in a way, it was feeling like I had nothing to lose in going after music. With jazz, the umbrella is so wide. So you find what it is you want to say and how you want to express yourself.
Q Your play, Nat King Cole And Me: A Musical Healing, had an autobiographical element. Is music a source of healing for you?
A Absolutely. I hadn’t written songs before that but when I was about 30, I started writing about the absence of my father and I discovered I could write about personal experience. When something is welling up inside of me, when it comes time to perform, I don’t have to conjure the emotion. I can draw on that emotion for the performance.
Q Does writing come easily?
A I don’t sit down to write. I let the initial inspiration come to me, and when my body and my brain want to write, it generally happens when I’m in motion. Be Good was written when I was on a bike, and On My Way To Harlem came when I was on the subway.
Q When you do a standards repertoire, you seem to make it your own. How do you pick covers?
A It has to have some emotional connection to me. I sing I Fall In Love Too Easily because I do fall in love too easily. I sing Skylark because I had periods as a lonely person in search of love.
Q Your song Fan The Flame hit me as one of the more beautiful messages on the new album. At a time when Americans are going through so much turmoil, is it important to get out that message?
A I think so. My brain works subconsciously, so I’m sure some initial speeches of Donald Trump and the phrases that are used to excite emotions for political gain got to me. Instead of fanning the flames of anger, I’m fanning the flames of love. It’s pushback to those who would try to capitalize on people’s differences. The message is “stand up on your seat with your dirty feet, raise your fist in the air and be sweet.” It’s a homage to non-violence.
Q I saw the video of your tribute to Prince on the BBC. Was he an important inspiration?
A Yeah, his creativity, and his defiance to not be labelled in any particular genre. Probably his most accessible song is Purple Rain, and that’s a gospel song. I heard that style, that feel, a thousand times in church as a child. I liked that he could bring that to a wider audience, not watered down at all.