Gregory Porter

One Liner: Jazz and soul delivered with a honey smooth voice

Poster Position: 14

Thoughts:  When I pulled up this guy's music, and saw a picture of him, I remembered him from somewhere.  His particular look is very distinctive.


But it wasn't until I went and read his bio that I remembered that he was one of the guys who contributed vocals to Disclosure's most recent album, and when I looked him up I couldn't take that hat then either.  I mean, what is that thing?  He's like a hobo who found a jockey's helmet and now won't take it off.  Is he in a wetsuit under his short and tie?  Is there a helmet in the hat to avoid head trauma?  What is going on here?

Well, now I went and looked it up, and found this: "He has referred to it as both a security blanket and his “jazz hat”. In a 2012 interview with Jazzweekley.com he explained why he started wearing it: "I’ve had some surgery on my skin, so this has been my look for a little while and will continue to be for awhile longer."  Crap, now I'm an asshole.  Greg, sorry I made fun of your weird hat.  Hope the surgery went OK.

Enough about the jazz hat, his music is absolutely freaking gorgeous.  I'm no big jazz aficionado, but holy damn, his voice is melting honey gleaming in the sunshine.  I mean, he's just smoove like a fine lady's backside, warm like the steam that rises when you cut homemade bread fresh from the oven, soft like my beer gut, he is all things at once in all times in all places.  Like God, but with a weird hat. It's making me think of the fun tunes that I was in to from Jamie Cullum years ago, except with God singing.  I kid, but here is the top tune on Spotify (well, the original version, his top three songs in terms of listens are versions of this tune, called "Liquid Spirit," the original at 5.2 million, the Clapton remix at 8.0 million, and the Claptone Remix Edit at 5.6 million.  Pretty impressive.

This song is on an album by the same name, and that album won the 2014 Grammy Award for best jazz vocal album.  That song right there is all sorts of funky action and requires some dancin'.  Kind of has a gospel sound in addition to the jazzy soul funk.
More popular than that track right now (but with many fewer streams at only 833k) is a reinterpretation of that track that he appeared on for Disclosure, which appears on 2016's Take Me To The Alley, called "Holdin' On."

Feel that?  Some Barry White sounding action at the start.  Just beautiful, man.  Awesome sound. I'd never go out of my way to listen to this type of music, unless maybe trying to set the mood for the wife or something, but we've had an unseasonable rainstorm or two the past few days here in Austin, and it sure is nice to have this playing while the rain dribbles down my office windows.

Prior to those two most recent albums, he opened with 2010's Water and then 2012's Be Good, which has his third most popular track, another gentle jazz beauty, again the title song, "Be Good (Lion's Song),"

Another really nice track.  It would be out of character to go see something like this at the festival, but I just might, just so I can hear some of this in person.  It seems like this would be way better in a club setting, more intimate and with better acoustics, but maybe he'll surprise on a big stage?  Either way, I'll keep enjoying this music.