About

A TAV Curator’s Pick.

“Grammy award-winning Gregory Porter returns with Take Me to the Alley, the much-anticipated fol-low-up to his 2013 Platinum album Liquid Spirit. The coolest guy in music, the album features a re-worked version of ‘Holding On’, the track Gregory co-wrote with electronic act Disclosure, as well as autobiographical songs including ‘Don’t Lose Your Steam’ and title track ‘Take Me To The Alley’, both written with his family in mind.” – Universal Music

“Genre-straddling true grit...Take Me to the Alley sounds fantastic, but that’s down to the warm spon-taneity of an album that seems to have been recorded in six days. Nor does he dabble in radio-friendly pop covers – no scat-singing interpreter of the Coldplay songbook he. His own compositions proud-ly display his gospel roots – not the first genre you’d think of flaunting were you desperate for main-stream success. The title track offers up a parable about the second coming of Christ, its sternness at odds with the pacific piano playing and Alicia Olatuja’s pillowy backing vocals; In Heaven undercuts the small hours loveliness of its muted trumpet with a lyric by Porter’s cousin about death and re-demption. .. There are certainly points during Take Me to the Alley when you can’t help but wish he’d ease up on the sentimentality and inject a little more edge – the roar of Fan the Flames and intriguingly off-kilter closer French African Queen come as something of a relief after a run of drowsily paced tracks – but no matter how velvety things get, there’s a grit in Porter’s voice that scrapes against the smoothness" - 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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