Getting a Best Jazz Vocalist Grammy nomination never gets old for Gregory Porter. “You can’t line these things up and expect them to happen,” he said of his good fortune. “When they do happen, it’s amazing.” The singer/composer — who won 2014’s Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Liquid Spirit (2013) —plays the Granada on January 24 in support of his fourth record, Take Me to the Alley, and is equally thrilled to share the same label as Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. The Blue Note artist isn’t one to rest on his laurels, however: “I’m one of those people who is like, ‘Now you’ve done this, what is the work going to be?’” he said.
The lyrics on Alley explore navigating romantic relationships: The hard gospel of “Don’t Be a Fool” presents a remorseful cheater dispensing advice to the listener after faking love to the woman who truly loves him. Other songs also revolve around the concept of reappreciating one’s partner. Porter admitted that his lyrics are inspired by his own life but that he “sometimes [switches] the roles to protect the innocent.”
Alley possesses many aural pleasures, too, such as when his commanding baritone pounces ahead of his band on “Don’t Lose Your Steam.” “In Fashion” obsesses about a chic lady over a “Bennie and the Jets”–style sonic spine.