All Rise (2LP)

***

UNDENIABLY ONE OF THE BEST VOICES OF OUR GENERATION, GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING SINGING SENSATION GREGORY PORTER HAS MADE HIS EAGERLY-AWAITED RETURN TO THE STUDIO WITH HIS SIXTH STUDIO ALBUM ‘ALL RISE’.

FOLLOWING ON FROM 2017’S ‘NAT KING COLE & ME’ ALBUM, PORTER’S FORTHCOMING RECORD MARKS A RETURN TO HIS BELOVED ORIGINAL SONGWRITING – HEART-ON-SLEEVE LYRICS IMBUED WITH EVERYDAY PHILOSOPHY AND REAL-LIFE DETAIL, SET TO A STIRRING MIX OF JAZZ, SOUL, BLUES, AND GOSPEL. FIRST SINGLE, ‘REVIVAL’, SETS THE TONE, KICKING OFF WITH GREGORY’S SIGNATURE HAND-CLAPPING. "YES, YOU COULD SAY THAT I WENT BIG," SAYS GREGORY ABOUT THE TRACK, WHICH FEATURES A HANDPICKED HORN SECTION AND 10-MEMBER CHOIR. HE EXPLAINS, “FOR ME, IT’S THE MESSAGE OF WALKING INTO THIS LIFE AND HAVING SOME FEAR AND SELF-DOUBT, AND THE POINT WHERE YOU GRAB ONTO SOMETHING THAT YOU KNOW IS REAL, THE SILENT AND REAL THINGS, THE TRUTH… ONCE YOU CAN WRAP ONTO THE TRUTH THEN THIS FEARLESSNESS COMES.”

SINCE HIS 2013 DEBUT, ‘LIQUID SPIRIT’, WHICH WON THE GRAMMY FOR BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM, GREGORY HASN'T LET DOWN HIS LEGION OF FANS, WHETHER COLLABORATING WITH DISCLOSURE ON ‘HOLDING ON’, RELEASING HIS DANCE HIT ‘LIQUID SPIRIT – CLAPTONE REMIX’ WHICH BECAME ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR TRACKS IN IBIZA, SCORING ANOTHER GRAMMY FOR ‘TAKE ME TO THE ALLEY’ (2016), OR TELLING HIS LIFE STORY THROUGH COLE'S SONGBOOK. PORTER IS STILL SURPRISED BY HIS RUNAWAY SUCCESS, BUT HE HAS A THEORY: "I WAS SOOTHED BY MY VOICE AS A CHILD AND I THINK THAT'S THE SAME THING OTHERS GET FROM IT. I'M TRYING TO HEAL MYSELF WITH THESE SONGS."

“IS IT POSSIBLE FOR BRITAIN TO LOVE GREGORY PORTER ANY MORE THAN WE ALREADY DO?” EVENING STANDARD

“YOU COULD TAKE A BATH IN THAT VOICE” DAILY