Beyond the Applause
Gregory Porter’s voice has carried him across continents, but the San Diego State University alumnus remains guided by lessons shaped long before the spotlight found him.
By Aaron Burgin
Photographs by Matt Furman
Check out additional spotlights on SDSU alumnus Leonard Patton (‘09) and jazz studies sophomore Luke Little.
GREGORY PORTER (’97) sat in his apartment near San Diego State University, weeks before he was set to graduate, and his mind drifted. Where was his place in the universe? What was his space?
Today, Porter, a two-time Grammy Award–winning jazz vocalist, husband and father of two, knows where his place is.
On the afternoon of Sept. 4, it was Hamburg, Germany, as he prepared to perform in front of a sellout crowd at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
On Nov. 15, it was Cape Town, South Africa, as his baritone voice soared in front of thousands of people at the Grand Arena.
And on a chilly Dec. 6 evening, it was The Soraya at Cal State Northridge— about 90 minutes south of his hometown, Bakersfield, California—where Porter and his five-piece ensemble warmed an audience of more than 1,600 people with Christmas standards with a jazz twist.
“You don’t have to choose one place that is your soil or that you’re supposed to be,” Porter said via Zoom from his hotel room in Hamburg. “Quite frankly, the world can be yours if you are willing to think that big, and I don’t know if I was willing to think that big yet back then. But it has come true for me that anywhere I go in the world, somebody knows my name.”
PORTER’S RISE WAS MARKED by a series of defining moments. One came as a chart-topping song in an unexpected genre.
In 2015, Disclosure, an acclaimed British electronic music duo, asked Porter to collaborate on a song called “Holding On.” The pulsating beat and Porter’s voice blended to become one of the biggest dance music hits of the 2010s, topping the Billboard Dance Club Songs charts. Today it has more than 72 million listens on Spotify.
He had just won his first Grammy for “Liquid Spirit” and was emerging as one of jazz’s defining voices. A year later, the vocalist, who performs in a Kangol Summer Spitfire flat cap and neck sleeve combo that has become his trademark look, released an R&B version of “Holding On” on the album “Take Me to the Alley,” earning his second Grammy.
None of this was part of his original plan. As a standout football player at Highland High School, Porter dreamed of playing in the NFL. The 6-foot-5 offensive lineman earned a full scholarship to play at SDSU, where he practiced alongside future NFL great Marshall Faulk (’95).
Just weeks into fall practice during his first year, a severe shoulder injury sidelined him. Doctors said he would never play again. A conversation with his mother, who was dying of cancer, changed everything.
“My mother was so important to me that I couldn’t even see life without her, and I wanted to let her know that she did a great job in raising me,” Porter said. “And so I was trying to let her know that I am going to be a good guy and go out and get a job and be simple and normal, and she said, ‘Don’t forget about your music. It’s the best thing you do.’ She encouraged me to be risky and to go out there and apply myself in music.”
Porter, then a public administration major, poured himself into music and theater his final years at SDSU. His booming voice became a staple on campus, earning him the nickname Luther, inspired by the famed R&B crooner Luther Vandross. He often performed the national anthem or the Black National Anthem—James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing”—at various Afrikan Student Union functions.
At off-campus venues like the Onyx Room, Porter jammed with many of the founding figures of San Diego’s modern jazz scene—trumpeter and now SDSU artist in residence Gilbert Castellanos, the late Daniel Jackson and UC San Diego music professors Kamau Kenyatta and George Lewis—all of whom he considers mentors along his journey.
But it was in New York, specifically the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where Porter’s musical career took off. Working as a chef at his late brother’s restaurant Bread Stuy, Porter made the rounds at local venues. There, he met the musicians who would become his longtime tour band and it’s where Motéma Music would sign him to his fi rst record deal, releasing “Water” in 2010.
THE ROAD HAS BEEN at the heart of Porter’s success. For nearly 25 years, touring has been a way of life, dating back to his first passport stamp for a performance in Ukraine.
Porter found beauty performing in corners of the world considered dangerous, recounting with fondness concerts in Rwanda and Lebanon, countries with respective modern histories of genocide and conflict. He considers those performances among his most memorable.
“Even the places having some difficulty, war politics, currently in office, there is beauty everywhere,” Porter said.
His 2023 concert in Cape Town, South Africa—his first solo concert in the country—made the strongest impression. He took the stage and looked out at 6,000 mostly Black faces who knew almost every word to every song. They sang aloud in distinct accents, layering their own harmonies and bringing Porter to tears on the stage.
“Six thousand Black faces, beautiful people, in a garden in Cape Town,” he said. “It was such a powerful experience for all of us.”
Porter prides himself on making music that can serve as a salve or awaken the conscience—and touring allows him to see the fruits of that labor. In communities facing hardship, audiences have taken his music as inspiration and uplift.
“Sometimes when I’m in the Middle East, I get messages, in troubled places where people need a balm, and it’s really something,” he said.
Beyond the cathartic moments of the concert, life on tour might not be as glamorous as people think, Porter said. Contrary to the perception of a musician’s life on tour, he takes a hands-on approach in the hours leading up to a show.
“People assume there’s a bunch of handlers, people bringing me grapes that are already peeled or oranges that are already supremed,” Porter said. “I like to do a lot of things on my own.”
The soulful frontman takes his own clothes to the laundry or dry cleaners. He likes to get out and drive—sometimes, he says, a little too fast.
But he mostly likes to maintain calmness. He’ll go for walks and visit local museums, and he and his bandmates always find time to sample local cuisine. Foie gras in France and sushi in Japan are among his favorites.
Back at the hotel, he’ll rest, stretch and talk to his family. Sometimes, it’s a phone call, other times, it’s FaceTime.
Anything, really, to conserve his energy for the show.
“Right or wrong, sometimes I am saving my physical energy, and sometimes even my emotional energy, for the stage because I don’t want to be exhausted in any way once I get there,” Porter said. “That way, when it’s time to hit the stage, it’s not about the performance: It’s intention, it’s message, it’s imparting love. I’ll hit the notes; it’s not about showing off . Music is more than ‘just the music.’”
THIS WAS A LESSON, he said, that was instilled during his days in downtown San Diego.
“I think about my cultivation in the San Diego scene and how important many of the jazz musicians who are holding it down, how important they were to my musical journey,” Porter said. “Cats like Rob Thorson, Gilbert Castellanos, Brian Levy—those cats were super important to me, and encouraging.”
Castellanos and Levy have since found their way to SDSU’s School of Music and Dance as an artist in residence and as the director of jazz studies, respectively.
Levy, a jazz saxophonist, remembers those days with Porter fondly.
“Before Gregory was famous, he spent a lot of time with Gilbert in the downtown scene. I remember him coming to the jam sessions and hanging out and really getting immersed in the music,” said Levy, who studied at the renowned New England Conservatory of Music.
Today, under Levy’s leadership, SDSU’s jazz program is amid a renaissance. When Levy took over direction in 2023, SDSU had up to 10 new jazz majors each year.
This year, there were 28. The program’s growth has also been strengthened by support from the Pitt and Virginia Warner Endowment for Jazz Studies, the Eugene and Barbara Bowman Endowed Scholarship, the Cruzan Jazz Guest Artist Series and Bill and Chutaphin Yeager.
PART OF LEVY’S SUCCESS is attributed to modeling the program after a conservatory, inviting more guest musicians to perform alongside and emphasizing auditions, ensemble training and frequent on-stage opportunities that prepare students for professional careers.
SDSU also hired several new lecturers and professors with deep roots in the local jazz scene, including bassist Luca Alemanno, guitarist Steve Cotter, and vocalists Jane Monheit and Leonard Patton (’09), both of whom tour regularly.
“It’s been about making connections for the students and creating experiences that are real-world rooted,” Levy said. “And the energy that it’s created here has been amazing.”
That energy has led to tangible stories of student success. Luke Little, a sophomore upright bassist and jazz studies major, recently returned from his first international tour in Hungary, calling it an “unforgettable experience,” and Ryan Kupsch, who plays several low brass instruments, will perform with the San Diego Symphony at the Rady Shell this summer.
In Porter, Levy said, students find inspiration because they see a person who was in their shoes as a student and has created a storied career.
“Gregory gives them a lot of hope,” Levy said. “Sometimes you hear that choosing jazz as a major isn’t a wise choice. But you see someone like Gregory who has the talent and work ethic and he’s made it, and you can see yourself in him.”
Porter’s bit of advice for students is to focus on perfecting their craft—and good things will follow.
“You will find that the greatest artists aren’t just in it for the business or to sell records; at least it’s not their main goal,” Porter said. “All the greats we hold on to, the Coltranes, Miles Davises … they are trying to appeal to our better nature, trying to push us to be better and greater. So if young artists are striving to perfect their instrument and who they can be in music, the good stuff will come.”
AFTER FIVE STRAIGHT MONTHS of traversing the globe, with Hamburg now a distant memory, Porter finally steps off a flight at Burbank. It’s December, and he’s home to see his family and to perform locally, including a stop at The Soraya at Cal State Northridge. The idea, he says, is to spend two weeks on the road and two weeks at home, but it rarely works out that way.
He makes his way to Bakersfield to see his sister and brother, his wife, Victoria, and two sons, Demyan, 13, and Lev, 4. His cocker spaniel jumps into his arms, and everything feels right.
“It’s very good, it’s grounding,” says Porter, who also has a home in New York City. “I haven’t been home in about five months.”
He unapologetically spoils his children when he sees them. If it’s ice cream they want, they’re going to get it. Lev has 30 toy dinosaurs? He’s getting No. 31.
It drives Victoria crazy, he admits. But it’s his way.
“I don’t have time to have the discipline of not trying to spoil my kids,” Porter says with a laugh.
He prioritizes talking with his boys, especially Demyan. They take walks and talk about the important things: girls, body image, emotions. It’s what his uncles used to call “managed smack.”
“He’s on the cusp of young manhood, and I know our time is precious, so I try to be present and hear him,” Porter says.
These are the moments that sustain him on the road, the ones that make the sacrifices worthwhile. But Porter understands that it’s his family that makes the biggest compromise.
“They are my inspiration,” he says. “They have to stay home, be educated. My wife has to be there to hold things down, and that is the sacrifice of this career. I know it is something I am giving up to have a career.”
After a while, work calls. He heads to The Soraya, donning an olive green three-piece suit with a chunky black turtleneck—and, of course, his signature flat cap and neck sleeve. With a warm smile, he greets the audience, regaling them with stories of Christmas until they could almost smell the greens, mashed potatoes and turkey he describes.
As he concludes, the audience roars, and he and his bandmates embrace, shake hands and smile.
His 2025 tour is done, and 2026 beckons.
“It’s been a long year, but I’m grateful for every second of it,” he says.
AZTECS IN MUSIC: Leonard Patton, ’09
By Rebecca Nordquist
Pat Metheny, a 20-time Grammy-winning jazz musician, is one of Leonard Patton’s heroes.
The San Diego–based jazz vocalist and percussionist says he’s been living with Metheny’s music for years. So when the call came to join him on the Side-Eye III+ Tour, it carried a special weight.
“This is not just playing a gig,” says Patton, who earned his Master of Music from SDSU in 2009. “This is on a deeper emotional level.”
The tour spans more than 70 stops worldwide through October, and for Patton, the opening shows in Jackson, Mississippi, mean the most.
“A little over three years ago, I lost my father, who was born in Mississippi,” he says. “So there’ll be a whole lot of emotions from just playing those first two shows.”
When home in San Diego, Patton runs The Jazz Lounge, the concert venue he founded in 2021, with the help of his wife of 28 years, Jerusha Patton, and their oldest son, Jotham. Patton also performs often with his band, LP and the Vinyl.
This year, Patton is again nominated for Best Jazz at the San Diego Music Awards, alongside fellow SDSU alumni Ed Kornhauser (’09) and percussionist Nathan Hubbard, and SDSU resident musician Gilbert Castellanos. Patton, a self-described introvert, says he has always let his music speak for itself. This year, it seems to be saying plenty.
Five Questions with Luke Little, Jazz Studies Sophomore
Luke Little is officially an international touring musician. The upright bassist just returned from a two-city stop in Hungary. Get to know him here.
By Rebecca Nordquist
Q: What was that first overseas tour like?
A: Unforgettable. European audiences have such a deep appreciation for the arts. Everything felt more alive overseas.
Q: Most memorable performance?
A: Jacob’s Music Center with Gilbert Castellanos. Not only was I in the presence of master musicians, but that night alone opened my eyes to something deeper with music. I realized I have an immense responsibility to uphold my musicianship and give something beautiful to every person who hears me.
Q: How has SDSU’s jazz program shaped you?
A: I have definitely felt more true to my individuality. There aren’t many places where people will dig you for who you are. Musicians here are open and curious.
Q: What’s your dream career?
A: To play and teach music for the rest of my life. I’m deeply passionate about passing down the spirit of the music I love to younger generations.
Q: Where can fans see you perform?
A: I’ll be at Dizzy’s on May 23, Tio Leo’s near Morena Boulevard on June 7.