Gregory Porter’s Retrospective Rises

By DownBeat I Nov. 15, 2021

Gregory Porter’s *Still Rising*
(Photo: Blue Note Records)

Vocalist Gregory Porter has released a collection of hand-picked favorites on his 34-song retrospective Still Rising.

The collection features a combination of new songs, covers, duets and a handful of Porter’s favorites, too. The two-disc offering delivers a variety of views into Porter’s Grammy-winning career. The first disc includes five new tracks along with two new arrangements of classic tunes and nine of Porter’s favorite songs from his career. Disc two offers a variety of covers and duets with special guests such as Moby, Jamie Cullum, Jeff Goldblum, Renée Fleming, Dianne Reeves, Lalah hathaway, Laura Mvula and Lizz Wright.

“This is my music up until now, but it’s not a ‘Greatest Hits,’” Porter said in a press release. “They often come at the end of someone’s career, and I still feel new and young in mine. I have much more to say. There is always something in an artist’s career that people don’t know about; I wanted to bring it to their attention. The album title echoes my last one, All Rise, because I am reiterating something evident in my music and the new songs here — this upward-looking optimism about life and love. It’s an unfinished story for me, both musically and personally. And I’m still learning how to do this. Still rising.” DB