Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter coming to Portsmouth June 25

Grammy Award-winning crooner Gregory Porter will make his way to the historic Music Hall in Portsmouth on Tuesday, June 25. He graciously spent a few moments with EDGE to discuss his craft and what it took to get some attention in a family that included eight siblings.

EDGE: Hey Gregory! What’s shakin’? What’s new?

Porter: Working on a new record! Just preliminary stuff before we head on in to the studio, you know… Touring on and off, doing television shows. Man, I’ve been quite busy, actually (laughs). Quite busy.

EDGE: Why music? Why do you seek it? Why do you create it?

Porter: Several things. I realized, I guess when I was a kid, that I was making music already as a means of self-healing. I would sing to make myself feel better and realized that it made other people feel better as well when I started singing in church. It took me a long time to realize – I’m not a zealot about anything – I’m not a uh, you know, hardcore about a lot of things, so the idea of whether it brings me success or pain, following music as a career wasn’t something I was ready for until talking to my mother before her passing. She told me it was OK (laughs). I needed a sanction. She was that. But music has always had a way of moving me. Same thing with my writing and how to go about expressing it and how it moves people in the way that it moved me when I was a kid and the way that it still moves me.

EDGE: When did you “discover” your voice? What’s your earliest memory of singing?

Porter: There was a lot of music around the house. I can’t put it in any decent chronological order, but I do remember in church and having the church being really excited about what I had just done – it was my first solo. I remember that particularly; I don’t know that it gave me importance in the family, but it made me stick out a little bit. You know, there were eight kids. You’re always doing something to get more food, more attention, more whatever… (laughs.) So I do remember that happening and having my mother doting over me a little bit after that.

EDGE: Were there any other singers in the family?

Porter: Yeah, I mean, with eight kids you figure there’s got to be some talent in there somewhere (laughs). But yeah, my sister and my brother sang as a little group. When my mother would travel around to churches, we traveled with her and sang two or three songs before she got up and preached.

EDGE: I also read that you were a chef before starting in on your recording career. What do cooking and music have in common? How does one influence the other?

Porter: I think of the two in the same way. At least from the social aspect of cooking – of sharing food. Not so much in the restaurant experience, but cooking as the center of a dinner party – cooking food. Putting it in front of someone for the warmth, the excitement, and the nourishment that food can have… The feeling that food can bring – that was always the fun thing for me. I think about music this way. I’ve broken these things down as far as what I’m trying to do with them. I’m trying to make people feel better with both food and music. They definitely have a relationship.

EDGE: What’s your specialty in the kitchen?

Porter: Mmmm… You know, I think of my mother and how clever she was. Sometimes when it seemed like there was nothing, she’d come out from the kitchen with this amazing one-pot dish. Ummm, I love to cook all different types of protein. But, Indian food – I have my own, You know, I’m from California, so we do our own fusion thing. So, yeah, I’m known for this kind of curry rubbed salmon that I make with a mango chutney. But I mean, I don’t want to stop it there. I cook everything. If you come and see me at Christmas, you’re literally going to see everything. The only thing you’re not going to see out on the table is possum and squirrel (laughs). But yeah, man, I cook everything. You know it, I’ve roasted it up, marinated it, whatever.

EDGE: What led you to pursue singing in a more serious manner? What do you appreciate about voice as an instrument? Do you play other instruments?

Porter: The ability to bend to emotion – a horn player can do it, a piano player can do it. It can be achieved – but any instrument at its best is trying to sing, is trying to communicate like the voice. So, as a vocalist, and one with a desire to strike to emotion, I think the ability of the voice to convey to emotion directly – there’s no questioning what I’m saying or what I’m trying to get at – the words are there to guide you. The voice can, above all instruments, achieve the most profound emotion in the best possible way.

I don’t play the piano for performance, but I do use it to construct melodies and songs.

EDGE: You’re heading to Portsmouth for a gig at The Music Hall to deliver a set fueled by Nat King Cole. I’m assuming some or all of these songs stem from the record you made back in 2017 “Nat King Cole & Me.” What’s the importance of this particular man on your music and career?

Porter: I could go on and on. There’s probably a book there in that last question (laughs). Quite frankly, unless I’m with an orchestra, it won’t be a full Nat King Cole show. There’ll definitely be some selections in there for sure, but it’s going to be a bit of all my music when I’m there with my band.

Nat has affected my music, my writing – you know, songs like “Nature Boy,” “Pick Yourself Up,” there’s so many. They affected songs like “Take Me to the Alley,” or “When Love was King.” His approach greatly inspired my own delivery. I’ve been listening to Nat since I was 5 or 6 years old. My mother told me I sounded like him, so I checked him out and gravitated toward his music. In the absence of my father, Nat King Cole’s music was profound. Some of the words that came out of those speakers, man, they were so profound. I’ll sing about his music and talk about him for the rest of my life, honestly. He’s a quintessential artist to and for me.

EDGE: What do you appreciate about switching back and forth between your own songs and the songs other folks have written?

Porter: For me, it’s the lineage of where I’m coming from. I love connecting some of those dots. A lot of times in the human condition a story is bring retold. Issues of fairness and equality, justice. It’s the retelling of the golden rule. In the Bible, in the Quran, these stories are the human condition. So the standards had been told even before the standards where there, and even in modern music, the story of the standards are being told. So this is the retelling of who we are. We like to think we’re innovators or we’re very special – and everybody is. Even Kanye West (laughs), but he’s not doing anything new. We’re not doing anything new. You can find somewhere, somehow in the history of man that somebody thought they were better than they think they are. You know what I mean? And there’s nothing wrong with that. The stories have been told. So I’m just up there offering a new melody with new inflection. What’s old is new again. I think that’s the appeal to me. I choose songs that are how I feel and believe. I fall in love to music because I do fall in love to music – you know what I’m saying?

EDGE: Do you enjoy performing? Is it weird to step foot onto a stage in front of a room full of strangers?

Porter: There’s no fear anymore. Sometimes there is if I’m working with new materials or a new orchestra … If I’m on live television … Sure, there’s some fear there. But, I think I’ve got a message. I think I’ve got something to say, so I think that kind of keeps the fear away. Some things that I fear most are sound systems that are incapable of conveying exactly what it is I’m trying to get across. Sometimes it’s these technical things that can get in the way of the intimacy that you’re trying to achieve with your audience. But, nah, I’m not afraid of singing to a room full of strangers. We won’t be strangers after we’re done.

EDGE: What excites you about paying us a visit here in New Hampshire? What can folks expect when they come out to hear you sing?

Porter: Authenticity. When I think of that part of the country I think of authenticity, so, I’m just coming as Gregory Porter. There may be lights. There may be bells and whistles. But ignore all of that and just try to listen to what the hell I’m saying (laughs), you know. Put your listening ears on.

Go & Do

What: Gregory Porter in concert

When: 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 25

Where: The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth

Tickets: $45 to $68

More info: Visit www.themusichall.org for tickets and details

Check out www.themusichall.org for further information.