Jazz vocalist Gregory Porter

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We revisit our conversation with Gregory Porter. He's a Grammy winning jazz singer, the pride of Bakersfield California and, until his junior year of college, he was an aspiring football player. When he joined us in 2018, he had recently recorded an album of standards made popular by Nat "King" Cole. He'll tell Jesse about his deeply personal connection to one of America's most iconic voices. Plus, what it was like to grow up in Bakersfield, California and how that's influenced his lyrics. Gregory Porter's new album All Rise is out on April 17th.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.8	I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.
0:21.8	This week we're listening back to some favorite interviews.
0:24.0	Next up is Greg Reporder in 2018.
0:27.1	He's a Grammy Award-nominated jazz singer.
0:29.6	He sold a bunch of albums and the route that he took to his singing career is Nick.
0:35.6	He was an offensive lineman in college, then during his junior year an injury ended his
0:41.5	football career.
0:43.6	He knew he could sing but he wasn't a singer, he hadn't really pursued it professionally
0:49.3	and that changed when his mom literally from her deathbed told him to start singing.
0:54.5	He moved to New York with his brother and recorded 2010's Water, his debut album.
0:59.2	And that's the other unique thing about his career.
1:02.1	Whereas most young jazz singers start out recording standards, Porter recorded an album
1:07.1	of mostly originals, like this song, Magic Cut.
1:25.5	Porter has also done standards like on 2017's Nat King Cole and me.
1:54.3	My love, your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking.
2:06.9	When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by.
2:16.5	If you smile through your fears and sorrow smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come
2:33.3	shining through you.
2:37.0	These days he's got a new album All Rise is a return to form form, another compilation
2:42.4	of originals.
2:43.4	Let's take a listen to a single off of it called Revival.
	...

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