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“The 2014 Gregory Porter compilation Issues of Life: Features and Remixes brings together disparate tracks the innovative jazz vocalist recorded prior to signing with Blue Note. The collection comes on the heels of his 2014 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for 2013's Liquid Spirit, and displays much of what has made him such a jazz superstar.” – AllMusic

“Gregory Porter is an international singing star now, a luminary of the Blue Note record label (and a prominent guest on this week’s iTunes festival), but these songs and remixes catch some quirky collaborations from his life on the way up. It includes a muscular, horn-heavy 2012 radio-edit of a version of Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’ with Austria’s Blue Brass band and some soaring Porter scat, a soulful and coolly bass-walking Be My Monster Love and the smokily wondering immigant-song Hope Is a Thing with Feathers, with post-Coltrane tenor-sax supremo David Murray. There is also a soulfully confiding account of Gil Scott-Heron’s Song of the Wind arrestingly introduced by impressionistic, percussion-whisperings, and the urgently bass-pumping Opolopo remix of Porter’s 1960 What?, the singer’s signature theme on his early gigs. And there are five tracks featuring soul-jazz collective Zbonics, including the yearning title track with its Headhunters-like keys textures. For those among the majestic Porter’s growing legion of fans who want to know more of his backstory, this compilation is an absorbing chronicle.” – The Guardian

About Gregory Porter:

“Jazz, soul, and gospel singer, songwriter, and actor Gregory Porter was born in Los Angeles, California but grew up in Bakersfield, California, where his mother was a minister. As a child, he fell under the spell of his mother's Nat King Cole records, learning to imitate and sing like Cole, but his early aspirations were in sports. He was awarded a football scholarship to attend San Diego State University, but after an injury to his shoulder derailed his sports career, he began performing in local jazz clubs, which is where he met saxophonist, composer, and pianist Kamau Kenyatta. Kenyatta became Porter's mentor, introducing him to flutist Hubert Laws, who featured Porter's vocals on a track on his 1998 album Hubert Laws' Remembers the Unforgettable Nat King Cole. Laws' sister, Eloise Laws, heard Porter during the studio sessions and was impressed with his singing; he helped him get cast as one of the leads in a new musical It Ain't Nothing But the Blues, which eventually enjoyed a run on Broadway. The gates were open for Porter. His debut album, Water, appeared in 2010, and was followed by a second, Be Good, released two years later in 2012. In September of 2013, Porter (accompanied by Airto) appeared on a track from Kentiyah Presents Evolutionary Minded: Furthering the Legacy of Gil Scott-Heron, with M-1, Brian Jackson, Chuck D., Killah Priest, Martin Luther, and others; a week later, he issued his third album, Liquid Spirit, produced by Brian Bacchus. ~ Steve Leggett” – Blue Note Records

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