All Rise, his 2020 studio album, marks a return to Porter’s beloved original songwriting—heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. Produced by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sandé), the album also represents the evolution of Porter’s art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate and universal, too. All Rise brims with songs about irrepressible love, plus a little protest, because the road to healing is bumpy.
Recorded between Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and a small studio in Paris, Gregory notes, “I’m thinking all of us rise — not just one person being exalted. We are all exalted and lifted up by love. This is my political thought and my real truth. It comes from my personality, my mother’s personality, the personality of the blues, and of black people. It’s this idea of making do with the scraps, of resurrection and ascension, and of whatever the current situation is, it can get better through love.”
Gregory Porter’s path has not been an easy one–yet he speaks on All Rise about his absent veteran father, whom he never knew, and the racist father of his teenage love interest, with gratitude and celestial reverence. Porter cuts through the noise of genres and the mess of life to reach us all where we live: the heart.
The release of All Rise in 2020 brought Porter a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B album, and in November 2021 Porter released Still Rising, a 2-CD collection of his favorite work of the previous decade.
All Rise, his 2020 studio album, marks a return to Porter’s beloved original songwriting—heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. Produced by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sandé), the album also represents the evolution of Porter’s art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate and universal, too. All Rise brims with songs about irrepressible love, plus a little protest, because the road to healing is bumpy.
Recorded between Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and a small studio in Paris, Gregory notes, “I’m thinking all of us rise — not just one person being exalted. We are all exalted and lifted up by love. This is my political thought and my real truth. It comes from my personality, my mother’s personality, the personality of the blues, and of black people. It’s this idea of making do with the scraps, of resurrection and ascension, and of whatever the current situation is, it can get better through love.”
Gregory Porter’s path has not been an easy one–yet he speaks on All Rise about his absent veteran father, whom he never knew, and the racist father of his teenage love interest, with gratitude and celestial reverence. Porter cuts through the noise of genres and the mess of life to reach us all where we live: the heart.
The release of All Rise in 2020 brought Porter a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B album, and in November 2021 Porter released Still Rising, a 2-CD collection of his favorite work of the previous decade.
