When Gregory Porter was 21, his mother told him to follow his dreams and become a singer. Her words stayed with him– not least because she was seriously ill with cancer at the time and would die soon afterwards. Through all the years that followed – the many highs and the occasional low – the Grammy-winning artist has carried that final wish close to his heart.
“It sounds like such a simple thing – our last conversation. But I had no licence before that to pursue a music career,” says the acclaimed jazz vocalist, speaking ahead of two sellout Guinness Cork Jazz Festival shows at the city’s Opera House on Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25.
He knew he could sing – that his expressive, mellifluous voice could transport the listener far, far away from their immediate concerns and woes. But, having grown up poor in Bakersfield, California, a music career had felt out of reach. When his mother told him to go out and seize his destiny with both hands, it was as if he had received permission to pursue a bigger, brighter life.
“It [the music] was all inside of me. I needed my mother’s sanction to say it was okay to do this, particularly as her health was failing dramatically. I needed her to say that. She knew me. She knew her son. She said, ‘Don’t forget about your music’. It was the last thing I thought she would say. It was what I needed to hear.”
He never forgot that exchange, and when he won a Grammy for 2013’s Liquid Spirit album, the first person he thanked was his mother. That win came early in an extraordinary career that has seen him perform on the main stage at Glastonbury, collaborate with movie star-turned-jazz musician Jeff Goldblum, and record a single with pop star Ellie Goulding.
That’s a lot of success, and he admits that his head has spun when heroes such as Denzel Washington tell him they are fans. Yet through it all, he has never lost sight of his driving mission—to bring his love of jazz vocal music to a wider audience.
It is in pursuit of that goal that he returns to Cork Jazz, which he previously graced in 2016. He explains that, as an African American, he feels a connection with the Irish people and with their history of oppression.
“People who have a history of struggle, who have to surmount something, we understand each other,” he says. “Quite frankly, it goes back further than the current time. Once we heard that soulful Irish music, I was like, ‘wait a minute – that’s the blues of another kind’. We get with it. We love it.”
Porter’s voice soars with joy and warmth on hit albums such as Take Me To The Alley and his gorgeous 2017 tribute record Nat King Cole & Me. His music is the ultimate pick-me-up – fun of tenderness and empathy.
But those emotions were hard won by the artist who had been a promising athlete in high school and whose promise as an American football player earned a scholarship at San Diego State University. Alas, dreams of success on the field were crushed just a year later when he suffered a career-ending shoulder industry.
He knows what it’s like to have your life’s ambition snatched away from before your eyes. “Being on the precipice of something that was a dream – and to have that deferred or shattered is one of those watershed moments that can change your life,” he says.
There have been further setbacks. The death of his mother – and then, during covid, of his older brother, Lloyd, who was hospitalised during the first wave of the pandemic in New York and never recovered consciousness after going on a ventilator.
“Losing someone very powerful or profound in your life – whether that be a romantic relationship or, in my case, my mother and my brother…these moments can cause something to well up inside of you,” he says. “If you find a way to capture it, it can be something special.”
He has sung for as long as he can remember. But breaking into the music industry was a struggle, and he had setbacks. He was well into middle age before he could finally feel that he had made it. There were also pressures to record other people’s music and to set his own songwriting to one side. He’s not opposed to the occasional cover version. But he’s as much songwriter as singer and was never going to compromise on that.
“I do feel fortunate for the opportunities I’ve had. It was a long time coming for sure. I had to do some things – some tricks and manoeuvring in order to get my voice heard, to make my songs. People had a whole bunch of idea of what I should do and what I should sing and who I should emulate and these type of things. Somehow I was able to skirt through and do my own thing. Sometimes that can break through.”
Porter lives in Bakersfield with his Russian-born wife, Victoria, and their two sons. Having a family keeps him grounded – though there are still moments when he rubs his eyes and wonders how much he has achieved and how many people he has impacted.
“My children keep me balanced for sure. But there’s plenty of strange happenings as I go around the world. It’s not normal to be in palaces and sometimes castles and have Denzel Washington singing your lyrics back to you. It’s not normal. It is quite a beautiful thing when I come home and my children step on my head as if I’m just daddy. I’m nothing special around here and that’s good.”
He loves his time at home. But the stage is a special place where he can be open, vulnerable, joyful and kind. Those are the emotions he will bring to Cork for what is sure to be a Jazz Festival highlight.
“I draw upon the human condition– the ups and downs of life, the ups and downs of love… The communication happens back and forth. It’s an emotional connection to the audience, which I think is quite frankly in the tradition of Irish music. There’s always for me without question an emotional aspect to the music and to performing.”
- Gregory Porter plays Cork Jazz Festival October 24 and 25
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