Grammy Winner Gregory Porter to Perform in Madison

Overture Center for the Arts is proud to present Gregory Porter in Capitol Theater for one night only on Thurs., Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. This soulful singer-songwriter won GRAMMY Awards in 2014 and 2017 for 'Best Jazz Vocal Album.' Tickets start at $45 (10+ tickets purchased together receive group discount) are available in person at the Overture Center Ticket Office (201 State Street), online at overture.org or by phone at 608.258.4141.

Porter is touring on the heels of his third Blue Note album, Nat King Cole & Me, a heartfelt tribute to his idol, the legendary singer, pianist and Capitol recording artist Nat King Cole. Nat King Cole & Me is a heartfelt tribute to Gregory Porter's idol, the legendary singer and pianist Nat King Cole. With the help of 6-time GRAMMY-winning arranger Vince Mendoza and the London Studio Orchestra, Porter revisits some of Cole's most cherished classics such as "Smile," "L-O-V-E," "Mona Lisa," "Nature Boy," and "The Christmas Song." Earlier in Porter's career - after his role in the Tony-nominated musical It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues but before rising to international acclaim as his solo artist - Porter dramatized his deep appreciation for Cole in a semi-autobiographical musical, Nat King Cole & Me, which premiered in 2004.

Porter will be on tour in the U.S. in November and December, including his Carnegie Hall debut on Feb. 14, in San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Madison, Memphis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Additional 2018 tour dates have been announced including a performance with the National Symphony Orchestra at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on June 27.

For Porter, the influence of Cole on his life and music runs deep, a through-line that reaches back into some of his earliest childhood memories. "He was one of a kind. He left such great music - such beautiful things to listen to that you can't help but be influenced by that extraordinary timbre, style, and ultimate cool," Porter enthuses. "It's only natural that I go to the root of my inspiration and where I come from. And that root would be my mother and gospel music and Nat King Cole," Porter says.

"My mother said I wrote this little song when I was 5 and put it on a tape and played it for her when she came home from work," recalls Porter. Upon hearing it his mother, Ruth Porter, exclaimed "Boy, you sound like Nat King Cole," a compliment that sent the curious young Porter delving into her record collection.

"I remember thinking how strange that name was, going through her records, and first seeing his image: this elegant, handsome, strong man sitting by a fire, looking like somebody's daddy. Then I put the vinyl on the player and out of those speakers came that voice, that nurturing sound. It filled a void in me. My father wasn't in my life; he wasn't raising me; he wasn't showing any interest in me. So Nat's words, 'pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again' - all of these life lessons and words of wisdom were like fatherly advice. They were coming out of the speakers like Nat was singing those words just to me. I would listen to his albums and imagine that Nat was my father."

"That musical was a way of me trying to find my father," Porter explains. "I wrote it after my father [Rufus Porter] had passed. The musical was of Nat King Cole; and half of the music was of my original writing. But the story is how I came to Nat's music in the absence of my father. So in a way, it was some self-prescribed, self-written therapy and emotional medicine for myself."

That musical underpins Nat King Cole & Me, the follow-up to Porter's GRAMMY-winning Blue Note albums Liquid Spirit (2013) and Take Me to the Alley (2016), which established Porter as a global superstar and his generation's most soulful jazz singer-songwriter.

"I went about selecting the songs like I always do - first in a very emotional way," Porter says. "I just gathered the songs that meant something to me over the years. There was a period in college when I had an injury to my shoulder and I needed music to soothe me at that time. So I ended up going back to Nat's records. Then I did the same thing during the passing of my mother. In a way, there's a familiarity and a calming effect to Nat's music. Recording Nat's music was very personal because I could hear and feel my mother. And I still feel myself searching for my father."

Gregory Porter's performance is part of the Overture Presents Music Series and is sponsored by Investment Services at UW Credit Union with additional support from Wisconsin Public Radio.

Gregory Porter - U.S. TOUR DATES:

2017

Nov. 11 - Exit Zero Jazz Festival - Cape May, NJ

Nov. 12 - NJPAC - Newark, NJ **Ella & Dizzy: The Centennial Celebration**

Nov. 16 - Overture Center - Madison, WI

Nov. 17 - Germantown Performing Arts Center - Germantown, TN

Nov. 18 - The Palladium - Carmel, IN

Nov. 19 - Cincinnati Music Hall - Cincinnati, OH **Gregory Porter with the Cincinnati Pops**

Dec. 6 - The Theater at ACE Hotel - Los Angeles, CA

Dec. 8-10 - SFJAZZ - San Francisco, CA

2018

Feb. 13 - Hopkins Center - Hanover, NH

Feb. 14 - Carnegie Hall - New York, NY

Feb. 16 - Troy Music Hall - Troy, NY

Feb. 22 - St. Cecilia Music Center - Grand Rapids, MI

Feb. 28 - Acadiana Center for the Arts - Lafayette, LA

March 2 - Knight Concert Hall at Arsht Center for the Performing Arts - Miami, FL

March 3 - McGlohan Theater - Charlotte, NC

March 4 - Carolina Theater - Durham, NC

June 20 - Dell Hall at Long Center for the Performing Arts - Austin, TX

June 27 - Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - Washington DC **Gregory Porter with the National Symphony Orchestra**

Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wis., features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and five galleries where national and international touring artists, ten resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. Overture.org.

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