release date: Aug. 30, 2013
format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Brian Bacchus, Kamau Kenyatta
label: Blue Note - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "No Love Dying" (4 / 5) (live) - 2. "Liquid Spirit" - 4. "Water Under Bridges" (4 / 5) - 5. "Hey Laura" - 7. "Wolfcry" (4 / 5) - 9. "Brown Grass" (4 / 5) - 11. "The in Crowd" - 12. "Movin' " - 14. "I Fall in Love Too Easily"
3rd studio album by Gregory Porter and his first on a major label after signing with Blue Note Records. The album is entirely made with the same musical partners, who stood behind Porter on his last album with Motéma Music, Be Good from 2012. The album is released only 1½ years after his last studio album and this time counting a total of 14 tracks - 11 of these new songs are composed by Porter.
It's no wonder Porter has been lauded with prizes with this new album. It continues his take on jazz, but this time he has made a small change of style in that he has abandoned much of the original free jazz universe, which made room for individual instrumentalists.
Liquid Spirit presents a very fine combination of jazz and soul that renews the whole genre of popular jazz and the American 'standards'. Porter has composed the majority of tracks on his own but the entire album sounds like classic American standards. He has such a great crisp vocal with hints of Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding and the most striking element on this new outing is his original blend of traditional jazz, vocal jazz and soul that has "class" written all over the place.
The album gained its biggest success in Europe as it sold Platinum in several EU countries (3 x Platinum in Germany and Platinum in the UK) and it reached #2 on the Top Jazz Albums list in the US (#187 overall). Nationally, it sold just above 40.000 copies, whereas Platinum in the UK is more than 300.000 copies and in Germany alone, the album sold more than 600.000 albums. For Liquid Spirit, Gregory Porter won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2014.
For people who loved his commitment to a traditional jazz sphere may consider this album as closer to mainstream pop, but given the fine reviews and sales numbers I'm also certain that a bigger crowd of people find the album more digestible and a highly welcomed change of style. Imho, this is porter's so far best album and one the best album of 2013 making it highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com, Daily Express, PopMatters 4 / 5, All About Jazz, Contactmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
