Sunday Open Thread: Gregory Porter – From Football To Jazz Vocalist Extraordinaire

Good Morning POU!

Gregory Porter (born November 4, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2014 for Liquid Spirit and in 2017 for Take Me to the Alley.

In his first semester playing football at San Diego State University, Gregory Porter severely injured his shoulder. Doctors told him his days on the field were over, but there was some good news: The school would let him keep his athletic scholarship. Suddenly without football, but with a lot of time on his hands, Porter searched for a new calling — and found it in his voice.

At age 21, Porter lost his mother to cancer, but only after she entreated him from her death bed to “Sing, baby, sing!”

Porter moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in 2004, along with his brother Lloyd. He worked as a chef at Lloyd’s restaurant Bread-Stuy (now defunct), where he also performed. Porter performed at other neighborhood venues including Sista’s Place and Solomon’s Porch, and moved on to Harlem club St. Nick’s Pub, where he maintained a weekly residency. Out of this residency evolved what would become Porter’s touring band.

Be Good (Lion’s Song) (I’ve fallen in love with this song)

He has since become a world-renowned jazz singer; his latest album, out next week, is called Liquid Spirit. He recently spoke with NPR’s Audie Cornish, and the conversation turned quickly from his football days to his late parents: the minister mother who raised him and the freewheeling father whose absence became a source both of pain and inspiration.

He recounted his mother’s reaction to beginning a singing career with NPR in 2013:

I was devastated. I called my mother, crying. And she said, “So, you don’t get hit in the head anymore. You don’t get tackled and you won’t be tackling anybody anymore. But you still get to keep your scholarship?” And, through tears, I’m like, “Yes!” And she’s like, “Oh, this is great!” And I was like, “No, Mom, this is terrible!”

Another encounter I had with my mother was before her passing, just maybe a couple of years later. She had breast cancer; she had a couple of days left. On her deathbed, we were talking about everything: children, and how to buy a house, and what I’ll do with the rest of my life. I wanted to tell her, “Mom, I’m studying city planning. I’ll be a good municipal worker or whatever I’ll be, so you don’t have to worry about me when you leave.” And she said to me, “Gregory, singing is one of the best things you do. Don’t forget about that.” In a way, she gave me this surprising nudge into music. …She said, “Sing, baby,” and laid her head down. So that’s what I’m doing now.

Illusion (this video bought me to tears)