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Review
Californian-born New Yorker Gregory Porter shot to fame with his debut album, Water, in 2010, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal in the process. This follow-up comes with high expectations, but fans of authentically soulful vocals and luxuriant horn-heavy arrangements need not worry, Porter has, in a word, nailed it.
Porter’s voice is a marvel: a warm, assured tenor with precise, impeccable intonation, completely at home in classy originals that – like all good jazz – seem to bathe in timeless familiarity. On Painted on Canvas, Porter’s delivery is imbued with some of Donny Hathaway’s earnest wistfulness, while the title-track feels so much like a standard from the Great American Songbook that it’s a cinch to imagine it cropping up in a Sammy Davis Jr TV special between The Candy Man and Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head – and it comes as no surprise to learn that Porter is a veteran of musical theatre.
Yet, despite these stylings, Porter clearly sees his work as part of a jazz lineage – as driven home in the breezily up-tempo optimism of On My Way to Harlem with its Duke Ellington name-check and Porter’s claim of “I was baptized by a jazzman’s horn”. It’s a sentiment that benefits from the genuine jazz chops laid down by an acoustic band built around pianist Chip Crawford – who isn’t afraid to take his solos out beyond obvious melodic territory – and saxophonist/arranger Kamau Kenyatta, whose solos are a little more honeyed.
There’s a sense of sumptuous comfort about much of the album – and not just in the arrangements. Porter’s lyrics, too, seem to come from a place of great emotional strength: Real Good Hands is a respectful marriage proposal (complete with cornball 70s-style spoken introduction) and Mother’s Song is a gospelised paean to family values. In fact, towards the middle of this (quite long) album it’s all so wholesome and smooth that it’s a little like lingering too long in a hot bath and nodding off into steamy, contented slumber.
But all is made good by a couple of closing stormers: Bling Bling, a high-energy jazz gallop in which Porter unleashes an all-too-brief burst of raucous scat; and a belting version of Nat Adderley’s Work Song that raises exuberant goose-bumps. Yeah, Gregory Porter is the real deal.
--Daniel Spicer
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Jazzwise, (Kevin Le Gendre), March 2011
(4 stars) Intelligent lyrics...startling voice and well marshalled charisma...mark him out as a substantial addition to the canon of jazz singing.
The cover of Skylark is well-nigh perfect. Porter, an admirer of Nat King Cole, has left an impressive calling card.
His voice is a commanding instrument that lends itself beautifully to the varied tempos and mixed material represented on this album.
The cover of Skylark is well-nigh perfect. Porter, an admirer of Nat King Cole, has left an impressive calling card.
His voice is a commanding instrument that lends itself beautifully to the varied tempos and mixed material represented on this album.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
I watched Jools Holland last night, and when Gregory Porter started singing, I held my breath, it was so fantastic. There are not many times this has happened to me, but the man's voice is wonderful.
I have not heard of this singer before, and I want to know why he is not doing any gigs in the UK?
This is great Jazz that concentrates on the melodies and voice. I can only repeat what other reviewers have said, recommend this to your friends, this singer is a marvel!
I have not heard of this singer before, and I want to know why he is not doing any gigs in the UK?
This is great Jazz that concentrates on the melodies and voice. I can only repeat what other reviewers have said, recommend this to your friends, this singer is a marvel!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Over the last few years, it seems that most vocalists involved with Jazz, have been attempting some kind of "crossover" to break through to the wider markets available in the pop audience.
How refreshing it is then, to hear a proper Jazz album where the band leader, primary composer and featured soloist just happens to be a vocalist. No compromises are made and it's all acoustic instruments throughout, with no clever production techniques - just a crystal clear mix that gives everybody space to be heard.
If Gregory Porter had been a Sax player he could have been somebody like John Coltrane and the style of this album is very much from that era and the rhythm section "feel" and piano voicings could have come from A Love Supreme or Coltrane's Sound.
Of course the fact that vocals dominate throughout, makes this a more approachable album and the pre-fusion Jazz rhythms, give a sort of "classic" and rootsy feel to the music that is very appealing. But because Porter writes a lot of this album (which gives him great credit of course)it brings it all up to date and doesn't mean this is stuck in the 1960s - even when he is writing about that period in the stand-out track : '1960 What'.
Throughout, we also have great Jazz playing and improvising, especially from Chip Crawford on Piano - but there are also fluent and exciting horn solos on tracks like Wayne Shorter's 'Black Nile' - which is taken at a blisteringly fast tempo. This is real Jazz - a band interacting and working together and not just a star vocalist going through his repertoire of standards.
This is no doubt why JazzWise magazine's reviewers voted this their album of the year for 2011 and I have no doubt it deserves this and the wider attention it will get because of this. A must-listen album for contemporary Jazz, with more than a nod to the history and tradition of the music.
How refreshing it is then, to hear a proper Jazz album where the band leader, primary composer and featured soloist just happens to be a vocalist. No compromises are made and it's all acoustic instruments throughout, with no clever production techniques - just a crystal clear mix that gives everybody space to be heard.
If Gregory Porter had been a Sax player he could have been somebody like John Coltrane and the style of this album is very much from that era and the rhythm section "feel" and piano voicings could have come from A Love Supreme or Coltrane's Sound.
Of course the fact that vocals dominate throughout, makes this a more approachable album and the pre-fusion Jazz rhythms, give a sort of "classic" and rootsy feel to the music that is very appealing. But because Porter writes a lot of this album (which gives him great credit of course)it brings it all up to date and doesn't mean this is stuck in the 1960s - even when he is writing about that period in the stand-out track : '1960 What'.
Throughout, we also have great Jazz playing and improvising, especially from Chip Crawford on Piano - but there are also fluent and exciting horn solos on tracks like Wayne Shorter's 'Black Nile' - which is taken at a blisteringly fast tempo. This is real Jazz - a band interacting and working together and not just a star vocalist going through his repertoire of standards.
This is no doubt why JazzWise magazine's reviewers voted this their album of the year for 2011 and I have no doubt it deserves this and the wider attention it will get because of this. A must-listen album for contemporary Jazz, with more than a nod to the history and tradition of the music.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are a plethora of good female jazz singers around and always has been but a true male jazz singer is very rare.GP is a master song interprater he takes a song apart and rearranges it in a way that say King Pleasure or Eddie Jefferson might have done (but this isn't vocalese) He rearranges a song it in a way that the great Cetty Carter did he@s not a swing artist though he can swing with the best and hes certainly not a crooner. Al Jarreaua is perhaps the nearest comparesson I can think of but only in delivery and not style.I'm not going to give a break down of tracks one by one because there are no fillers here and I can only add that if you are only vaguely interested in the art of jazz singing as a singer or like me just a listerner this is a masterclass.What are you waiting for click but now.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wet, Wet, Wet
Having seen Gregory Porter on the Jools Holland show, I was expecting a good blues style album. To me it sounded very manufactured, very tedious and a blatant way of making money... Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. W. Stallwood
Wow, wow wow...!
If you like jazz, with a side order of rich vocals sounding like melted dark chocolate Gregory Porter is your man....this is a great album and his voice is superb... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Julia Siovan Plumb
Gregory Porter A new name
A new name to me. I heard Gregory Porter on Jamie Cullum's Radio 2 programme and I was impressed. I bought his disc and enjoyed it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Eric T
Nice ...
Classy, sophisticated jazz, if less rhythm and blues than his performance on Jules Holland's New Year show. Replays repeated listening to fully get his lyrics.
Published 3 months ago by Frisbeee
Very relaxing
I saw this guy for the first time on the Carole King Christmas show. He was sooo good that I bought the album immediately, without even hearing it first. Read more
Published 4 months ago by P. Armstrong
Velvet Vocals
I saw Gregory Porter perform 'Illusion' on Jools Holland's show earlier this year and fell in love with his velvet vocals and laid back performance. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Musicista
Brother in Jazz
Gregory describes this as an album of love and protest inextricably twinned to the emotional drivers in Jazz and as a power to the people. Read more
Published 6 months ago by dave copeland
great new voice
I heard him singing Feeling Good last night on Radio 3. I was immediately struck by his fabulous and warm voice, the love child of Nina Simone and Richie Havens. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. M. Nash
Great debut album
A great debut album. Superb voice and excellent lyrics on own his penned numbers. Recently saw him perform live in London and he lived up to all expectations, and impressed my... Read more
Published 7 months ago by ogs
Stupendous!
I was dimly aware of GP's excellence through brief exposure to him on radio and TV - but have just seen him live and close up in Birmingham's cookin' Hare & Hounds club (5/10/2011)... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Heebablob
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