About Born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, residing presently in Bedstuy, Brooklyn, Gregory performs around the UK, Europe, Russia and USA. A frequent guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Gregory also maintains a long-standing residency at Smoke Jazz Club in New York.
His debut recording Water received a Grammy Nomination in 2010 for Best Jazz Album. It was produced by saxophonist, pianist, composer and good friend Kamau Kenyatta. Kenyatta who bears much of the responsibility for Porter’s career trajectory, which can be traced back to Porter’s early days singing in small jazz clubs in San Diego. He lived there while at San Diego State University on a football scholarship, as an outside linebacker, until a shoulder injury sidelined him permanently. Recognizing his talents Kenyatta, along with saxophonist Daniel Jackson, nurtured the burgeoning performer and as Porter says, “taught him what he needed to know.” Kenyatta invited Porter to visit him in the studio in Los Angeles, where he was producing the flutist Hubert Laws’ Remembers the Unforgettable Nat King Cole. Certainly Kenyatta was aware of Porter’s childhood infatuation with Cole’s music and certainly he could hear the echoes of Cole’s mellow baritone in Porter’s own voice.
Eloise Laws a highly respected singer and recording artist in her own right, joined the cast of the musical theater play, “It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues.” Although he’d only had minimal theatrical experience to that point in the Doo Wop musical “Avenue X”, Porter eventually was cast in one of eight lead roles when the play opened in Colorado at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and followed it to Off-Broadway and then Broadway theater, where the NY Times, in its 1999 rave review, mentioned Gregory among the show’s “powerhouse line up of singers.” They musical went on to earn both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations that year.
Gregory’s success on the stage with “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues” paved the way for another theatrical outing and pairing with Eloise Laws. In his semi-autobiographical “Nat King Cole and Me,” he dramatically documented his childhood, which was marked by an absentee father and the joy and pain he heard when listening to his mother’s Nat King Cole records. This led to a rich imaginary life where the young Porter actually believed that the legendary crooner was indeed his dad, and that the love songs Cole sang were secretly being sung to him. Porter’s moving “Nat King Cole & Me” ran for two very successful months at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and traveled to Houston TX.
2011 has brought nominations from the Jazz Journalists Association for Best Male Vocalist and a German Record Critics Award. In the UK, Gregory recorded a session for Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 program and featured with Jools Holland on BBC TV’s ‘Later’ and 'Hootenanny' on New Year's Eve. On July 4th, Gregory made his UK performance debut to a sell out crowd at The Pizza Express Jazz Club, London, to be repeated for two nights in October. At the London Jazz Festival, Gregory's opened 'Jazz Voice' with his acapella version of 'Feeling Good'. Accompanied by a 40 piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Guy Barker at The Barbican the show was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Invited to be a guest of Carole King, Gregory performed her composition 'Up On The Roof' and duetted with her for 'Carole King and Friends' Christmas Special BBC4 TV.
2012 sees the release of Gregory's second album 'Be Good' on Motema. Shooting to No 1 in both UK and US iTunes Jazz charts on its release, Be Good is receiving great reviews from press and media. From May through to July Gregory will be a special guest of Jools Holland and his Orchestra performing around the UK.
Appearances
Family Stone
July 7: Santa Cruz, CA - Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
July 3: San Diego, CA - San Diego County Fair
July 18: Ocean City, NJ - Ocean City Music Pier
Aug 5: Vallejo, CA - Solano County Fair - Funfest
Aug 11: New York, NY - Damrosch Park Bandshell
Aug 14: Bethel, NY - Bethel Woods Center f/t Arts
Auug 23: Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun- Wolf’s Den
Sept 1: Sparks, NV - John Ascuaga’s Nugget
Sept 4: Dublin, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
Sept 5/6: Ronnie Scott's - London
Sept 10: - Rancho Murieta, CA - ETC Community Concert Series
Gregory Porter
OCT 5: The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
OCT 7-8: The Voice Festival, Pizza Express, London UK
Jamie Davis Quintet
JUNE 10: The Showroom, San Francisco CA
JUNE 16: Ramekins, Sonoma CA
JUNE 19: Father's Day Tribute at Jazz & Justice Church, Oakland CA
JULY 30: w Reno Jazz Orc -
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