{"id":2445630,"date":"2019-06-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=307999"},"modified":"2019-06-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T06:00:00","slug":"jazz-aspen-june-experience-gregory-porter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/jazz-aspen-june-experience-gregory-porter\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Aspen June Experience: Gregory Porter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gregory Porter will perform Thursday night at the JAS Cafe at the Aspen Art Museum.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Singer-songwriter Gregory Porter walks a line between honoring musical traditions and pushing jazz into its next era. With his warm baritone and his personal songwriting style, Porter has become one of the leading lights in contemporary jazz.<\/p>\n

Porter is back next weekend as the Jazz Aspen June Experience returns to the Benedict Music Tent and as he leads a tribute to the legendary Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole. He\u2019ll be accompanied by his band, by Aspen Music Festival and School students and by guest vocalists Roberta Gambarini and Charenee Wade as they interpret compositions from Great American Songbook long associated with Cole.<\/p>\n

The show is based on Cole\u2019s widely acclaimed 2017 album \u201cNat King Cole and Me,\u201d featuring his interpretations of tracks like \u201cMona Lisa,\u201d \u201cPick Yourself Up\u201d and \u201cBallerina.\u201d<\/p>\n

His personal style is apparent even in these classics and has touched something in a growing worldwide audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving my own personal experiences come into a song, I realized that the personal can become universal,\u201d Porter said during his last stop in Aspen. \u201cIn listening to jazz singer-songwriters, I\u2019ve realized that it\u2019s not a narcissistic thing to consider yourself and put yourself into the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legend of Gregory Porter goes back to a football injury in high school in Southern California in the late 1980s. A hulking linebacker, he\u2019d been on track to play for San Diego State. The injury sent him into music. But it was a long time, he said, before he considered himself a jazz singer.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough came on Broadway during his performances in the musical revue \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 But the Blues\u201d in 1999 and 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I am, on the largest theatrical stage, and we\u2019re having some success and people are responding to my performance,\u201d he recalled thinking. \u201cSo maybe I\u2019m in the right place. Maybe I\u2019m doing the right thing. But it wasn\u2019t for some time that I realized my jazz career could work, that my original writing could work. It took years of finding confidence and my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

His commercial and critical breakthrough came on his third album, the Grammy-winning 2013 record \u201cLiquid Spirit.\u201d Managing to be both timeless and of its historical moment, the album included high points like the civil-rights-themed \u201c1960 What?\u201d and helped push the jazz vocal tradition forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think music has to do that in order to stay current,\u201d he said. \u201cI think about that when I\u2019m making my music, but it\u2019s coming about organically. I\u2019m not trying to make any sea changes in the music \u2014 I don\u2019t think that I\u2019m that type of artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter was touring overseas in 2014 as the protests over the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, took hold. Porter responded with \u201cFan the Flames,\u201d a righteous call for nonviolent protest that includes the memorable refrain: \u201cStand up on the seat with your dirty feet\/Put your fist in the air, and be sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter said that as he watched the demonstrations and riot-gear-clad police on television, he feared they would turn violent. The melody and lyrics came to him, more or less, fully formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just my response, honoring the sacrifice of nonviolent protest and realizing that\u2019s the most effective form of protest and just thinking about that,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause sometimes the energy of the message can be lost by a violent response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter tours doggedly and has played more than 200 nights annually in recent years. He rarely sits down with songwriting in mind and doesn\u2019t take time off on the road to come up with new material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes to me, and I count on it to come to me,\u201d he said, adding with a laugh: \u201cSomebody said, \u2018This is a very dangerous way to write a record!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter has used his voice to venture beyond the creative bounds of the sometimes cloistered jazz world, including a memorable collaboration with the English electronic duo Disclosure on its song \u201cHolding On,\u201d which wraps Porter\u2019s booming vocals around an EDM beat (he had previously recorded a more traditional version).<\/p>\n

The band heard \u201c1960 What?\u201d on the radio and assumed Porter was a long-dead jazz crooner. When they learned he was, in fact, alive and well and at the top of his game, they brought him to London to collaborate. His creative experience working with Disclosure belies the image of many DJs and producers as simple button-pushers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat down and wrote the song on a piano, and then they took it away and did their electronic magic to it,\u201d Porter said. \u201cIf it\u2019s musical at all on my record, it\u2019s musical on theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregory Porter will perform Thursday night at the JAS Cafe at the Aspen Art Museum.Courtesy photo Singer-songwriter Gregory Porter walks a line between honoring musical traditions and pushing jazz into its next era. With his warm baritone and his personal songwriting style, Porter has become one of the leading lights in contemporary jazz. Porter is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 04:08:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}