The one lesson I’ve learned from life
Singer Gregory Porter
GRAMMY award-winning Gregory Porter, 50, is a jazz singer and curator of Cheltenham Jazz Festival. He lives in California with his wife Victoria and their two sons Demyan, age eight, and Lev, ten months.
SUCCESS IS LEAVING A SOULFUL LEGACY
BEFORE the first lockdown, I felt like everything was lined up for me. But the pandemic immediately made everything stressful. My tour was cancelled. Then my brother Lloyd got Covid and tragically passed away in May 2020, putting a dark cloud over my life.
We were close. You take for granted the times you contact each other for the little things, the milestones, the aches and pains of ageing. You may go to your best friend — he was that for me.
He was only a year older [49 when he died]. Although he was pre-diabetic, it was nothing significant. In my mind, he was healthier than me. So, I was like, surely my life will end soon.
It was a physical pain in my chest, this broken heart I had. His loss caused me to think about life, and what we are doing here. Thinking about my legacy became the over-arching theme.
What am I leaving behind? What do I want people to say when I’m gone? I have this every day now, as you don’t know when you’ll leave. My brother was a huge inspiration. I often think about his life. Lloyd ran a cafe-turned-community hub — where people figured out how to buy a house, and met, and brought their kids to. He was selling coffee and sandwiches, but what he was really doing was building a community and love. People came in when lonely or hurting — he would hug them and talk.
That’s the kind of person he was. A good guy. And after he died, people testified to that. He made people’s lives better. I hope to teach my children this.
I call it the wake: the wake of your movement through life. When your story is written, you want it to be all right. How are you affecting other people? What did you leave the kids? Gold? Land? I used to dream I’d buy a Porsche and leave it to my son. He hates it! Too fast, he says. He won’t even want it.
It’s about the soulful thing you leave. That’s what I’m talking about. Your soul legacy.
O GREGORY PORTER’S latest album, Still Rising, is out now.