One of the greatest voices of our generation, two-time GRAMMY Award winning singing sensation Gregory Porter has released his long-awaited sixth studio album ALL RISE (Blue Note), which is available now in deluxe and standard vinyl, CD, and digital versions.
Following 2017's heartfelt tribute album Nat King Cole & Me, ALL RISE marks a return to Porter's beloved original songwriting. The 15-song set features Porter’s trademark heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to an exhilarating mix of jazz, soul, blues, gospel, and pop including the uplifting lead single "Revival," the stirring protest song "Mister Holland" and the soulful ode to flight “Concorde” which was launched last month in connection with NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission
In their cover feature on Porter, DownBeat declared that “ALL RISE represents a significant step forward,” calling it “a willfully and artfully varied collection.” Produced by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Emili Sandé, Jamie Cullum), the album represents the evolution of Porter's art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate, and universal too.
“Yes, you could say that I went big,” says Porter about his latest, which combines the talents of his longtime loyal bandmates, a handpicked horn section, a 10-member choir, and the London Symphony Orchestra Strings. “But, quite frankly, the way I write in my head, it all happens with just voice and piano first, and it's built up from there. It feels good to get back to the rhythms and the styles and the feelings and the way that I like to lay down my own music from start to finish.”
As Porter worked out this album's direction, he looked inward, upward, and around him, and arrived at a raison d'être found in the title, ALL RISE. “We hear that phrase when presidents or judges come into the room,” says Porter, “but I'm thinking all of usrise — not just one person being exalted. We are all exalted and lifted up by love. This is my political thought and my real truth. It comes from my personality, my mother's personality, the personality of the blues, and of black people. It's this idea of making do with the scraps, of resurrection and ascension, and of whatever the current situation is, it can get better through love.”
Venue Information
Belk Theater
Belk Theater features state-of-the-art equipment, production and support capabilities and can host any event, from grand opera to rock to corporate annual meetings and lectures.
The theater features a contemporary European horseshoe arrangement for an intimate atmosphere and world-class acoustics. The most distant seat is less than 135 feet from the stage.
A hallmark of the theater’s design is some 2,400 “points of light” in the audience chamber, part of a dazzling fiber optic network with multi-color capabilities.
Renowned architect Cesar Pelli designed the Performing Arts Center, which opened in 1992, as well as the adjacent Bank of America Corporate Center and Founders Hall. The Center’s name honors the contributions of the people of the state of North Carolina as well as the generosity of the Blumenthal Foundation, the largest private donor to the capital campaign.
