Gregory Porter Makes Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Debut this Month

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra welcomes Gregory Porter, for his Pops debut at Music Hall on Sunday, November 19. John Morris Russell will conduct a program of Nat King Cole hits, as well as Mr. Porter's original songs, all orchestrated for the full breadth of the Pops Orchestra. The two-time Grammy Winner recently released an album, Nat "King" Cole & Me, that pays homage to the famous crooner, and his concert will celebrate that heritage. "Nat King Cole's lyrics were speaking to me, almost like fatherly advice, when I was listening to him alongside the console stereo player," said Mr. Porter in an interview for NPR First Listen, regarding his musical relationship with Cole.

Tickets for this one-night-only concert start at just $25 and are available by calling the Pops Box Office at (513) 381-3300 or visiting www.cincinnatipops.org.

The CSO's Multicultural Awareness Council (MAC) will be hosting a reception in Music Hall's Wilks Studio following this concert. The event will celebrate diversity in the arts, while honoring this year's winners of the Norman E. Johns Chair Award. Tickets for the MAC reception are sold separately ($15) and available for purchase via the Orchestra's website or by calling the Box Office.

The Cincinnati Pops is grateful to the Pops Series Sponsor, PNC. Major underwriting for the Pops is provided by Mrs. Edyth B. Lindner.

About Gregory Porter, vocalist

An artist whose music is at once timeless yet utterly of its time, Gregory Porter solidifies his standing as his generation's most soulful jazz singer-songwriter with Take Me to the Alley, winner of the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and the much anticipated follow-up to his sensational 2013 Blue Note debut Liquid Spirit. In his remarkable career, Porter has time and again demonstrated an innate ability to transcend genre and connect with audiences from all walks of life, and his new music reflects the singer's continued and mindful growth as an artist and as a person amid the constant touring demands that have resulted from tremendous international success.

Recently Porter moved his family from Brooklyn back to his hometown of Bakersfield, California, where he can be closer to his brothers and sisters. Liquid Spirit, which followed the critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated albums Water (2010) and Be Good (2012), quickly grew into a global phenomenon, selling a million albums worldwide and becoming the most streamed jazz album of all time with more than 20 million streams. The album has sold Platinum in the U.K. and Germany, and Gold in France, The Netherlands and Austria. In the U.S. Porter made his first-ever national TV appearances on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live, and both ESQUIRE and NPR Music declared him "America's Next Great Jazz Singer." Liquid Spirit also won Porter his first Grammy Award in 2014 for Best Jazz Vocal Album and earned him a Best Traditional R&B Performance nomination for his ballad "Hey Laura."

In 2015 Porter returned to the studio in New York City to record Take Me to the Alley. As he's done on his previous three albums, Porter teamed with producer Kamau Kenyatta to craft a collection of stirring originals that juxtapose the personal and political. His partnership with Kenyatta started in the mid-1990s when he was a student at San Diego State University. It was through Kenyatta's mentorship that Porter's professional musical career began.