Gregory Porter’s debut album Water earned him a Grammy nomination in 2011 for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Photo: Supplied
Jazz, soul and gospel — these are the styles embraced by American singer-songwriter Gregory Porter. If you were hoping to see him on his six-concert South Africa tour, titled An Intimate Evening With Gregory Porter, this month, you will be disappointed as it has already sold out.
Porter’s debut album Water earned him a Grammy nomination in 2011 for Best Jazz Vocal Album. He was establishing himself as a soulful contemporary musician and would go on to become a voice that would help define the millennial jazz scene.
His second album Be Good highlighted the musician’s ability to evoke intense emotions. However, it was the success of Porter’s third studio record Liquid Spirit, released in 2013, that launched his career. It sold more than 600 000 copies and won him his first Grammy, for Best Jazz Vocal Album, the following year.
Three years later, Porter took home his second Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for his fourth studio album Take Me to the Alley. Since then he has released three albums: Nat King Cole & Me in 2017; All Rise in 2020, which was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Album, and Still Rising — The Collection in November 2021.
Speaking about the album on his YouTube channel, Porter shares that Still Rising is a “culmination of his ideas and thoughts”, rather than a signal of the end of his career.
“Still Rising in a way is a thoughtful connection to my previous album All Rise. It’s a continuation of the story of optimism and the idea, the hope of renewal, recovery, regeneration, the reiteration of irrepressible love. Love in spite of its difficulties and problems and questions.
“I feel like this is not a greatest hits, it’s a collection of my thoughts, my music and my feelings and how I want to communicate to the listener and to the audience,” says the 51-year-old musician.
Porter grew up in Bakersfield, California, with a minister mother and an absent father. He left high school with a scholarship to play football at San Diego State University but his athletic career came to an end when he injured his shoulder. He then moved to New York to work as a chef. He would occasionally perform at local jazz clubs, where he met his mentor, Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Kamau Kenyatta.
An Intimate Evening With Gregory Porter includes five performances at Montecasino, Johannesburg, and one at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town. He took to Twitter on 4 January to share his excitement: “See you soon South Africa! Coming for you at the end of the month to play six sold-out shows across Cape Town and Johannesburg! Feeling the LOVE!”
South African musician Asanda Mvana, aka Msaki, has announced that she will be accompanying Porter on his tour from 23 to 28 January, performing a “special solo set”.
This isn’t the first time Porter has graced South Africa stages — in 2014, he performed at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival at the Sandton Convention Centre, where he wowed audiences with his lively, booming baritone and soul-shaking performance.