Why Gregory Porter Thinks American Music Is Experienced Better From A Distance

The dapper American jazz vocalist Gregory Porter became a surprise pop phenom with 2013's album Liquid Spirit. Today he's also beloved in the house music scene - collaborating with Disclosure. But Porter was a late bloomer.

This month Porter is headed to Australia, with band, for now sold-out "intimate" shows in Sydney and Melbourne. He'll then return for Bluesfest 2017. Porter already has a friend on the bill in Laura Mvula, who featured on a duet version of his Water Under Bridges.

Porter has toured here previously - back in 2012, while still 'underground', he played Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz & Blues and club gigs. "I remember the musical energy was actually hot at a couple of places," Porter enthuses. "I'm not lying to you when [I say] I felt like it was like a Harlem vibe!"

Porter is speaking from his hometown of Bakersfield, California - typically associated with country legends such as Merle Haggard. He's out and about with his toddler son. "And I'm eating popcorn," Porter says bashfully.

The iconic composer Philip Glass only committed to music full-time in his 40s. Before that, he worked as a plumber and taxi driver. Porter, chuckling, can relate. He grew up singing gospel, his mother a minister. Porter secured a football scholarship to San Diego State University. But, following a debilitating injury, he turned to music - being discovered by Kamau Kenyatta. The soulful baritone cameoed on flautist Hubert Laws' 1998 Nat King Cole tribute project. He subsequently scored a key role in the revue It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, eventually appearing on Broadway. However, moving to Brooklyn, New York, in the mid-'00s, Porter found himself supplementing his income as a chef.

"I tend to think of it in this romantic way that people can see American music culture better from a distance - you can hear it definitely better, because in the US you're bombarded with what people think you're supposed to listen to."

Porter debuted with 2010's Water on Motema Music, receiving his first Grammy nom. The singer's incremental success saw him sign to Blue Note, airing Liquid Spirit - which, astonishingly for a jazz LP, reached the UK Top 10, going platinum. It won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Crucially, the mysteriously masked German DJ Claptone remixed the title track into an anthem.

Porter teamed with Disclosure for Holding On, the garagey lead single from Caracal. This year he unveiled his fourth album, Take Me To The Alley, opening with an alternative recording of Holding On. Porter again offers indelible original songs - his themes relationships and protest (cue: Fan The Flames). "The evolution is just [me] being quite comfortable with who I am and my stories and what I think is in a way worthy of being put to a melody," Porter reflects.

In June the jazzer hit Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, recalling it as "amazing". "I come on and I'm still doing just my thing - what I do," he says. Ironically, Porter is more of a household name in Britain than the US - his latest album a UK #5. He prestigiously guested on the BBC's Attenborough At 90, commemorating Sir David. "In my hometown nobody knows me like they do in the UK," Porter notes. "It's part of the tradition of jazz, really. But I tend to think of it in this romantic way that people can see American music culture better from a distance - you can hear it definitely better, because in the US you're bombarded with what people think you're supposed to listen to."

Nowadays jazz seems modishly ubiquitous - just replay those recent Kendrick Lamar and David Bowie opuses - yet, as a genre, it's considered 'niche'. Nonetheless, Porter is the streaming era's inaugural jazz star. Although evidently no purist, he respects jazz "traditionalists" like Wynton Marsalis - an early supporter. "I think, under the umbrella of jazz, all of these voices are necessary," Porter maintains. "We all can't go off the rails and off the chart and do whatever it is that we wanna do in terms of genre-leaping and this type of thing."

Indeed, Porter is content to be embraced by dance music's 'in' crowd. Even in 2011 he sang on Italian acid jazz DJ/producer Nicola Conte's Love & Revolution. Porter recreated Claptone's Liquid Spirit in Ibiza for Radio 1. (He's familiar with Detroit techno, a black 'hi-tech jazz', too, bonding with Moodymann at a Croatian fest.)

Porter's personal listening is expansive. Impressively, his current picks are female artists like Lianne la Havas. "But I'm bouncing around," he says, citing classical, country and "the American songbook".

If the fortysomething's crossover triumph has required adjustments, he's relishing them. "The adjustments are that I work a lot now - I travel a lot. Almost 300 days a year I'm on the road. But the benefit is it's wonderful and [I have] the opportunity to do what I think I'm probably supposed to be doing - music. So to be able to do that consistently, and all the time, is a great adjustment. Also just the seasoning of life that can happen, by coming into some success when you're older, I can handle it better, I think."