release date: Feb. 14, 2012
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: Brian Bacchus
label: Motéma Music - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Be Good (Lion's Song)" (4 / 5) - 3. "On My Way to Harlem" (4 / 5) - 4. "Real Good Hands" - 8. "Mother's Song" - 9. "Our Love"
2nd studio album by Gregory Porter and his second and final album to be released on independent label Motéma Music continues the wide jazz conglomerate established on the debut.
On this Porter has collected a handful of session musicians of which both bassist Aaron James, pianist Chip Crawford, drummer Emanuel Harold, alto saxophonist Yosuke Sato and associate producer and horns arranger Kamau Kenyatta (who produced the debut and who also plays alto sax on track #1) play alongside with trumpeter Keyon Harrold and tenor sax player Tivon Pennicott and sort of establish the musical backbone to Porter's arrangements, just as they will on later albums. And this strong unity really proves its worth on the difficult sophomore release that only shows us a stronger and more original sounding Gregory Porter albeit he still gets into the many corners of jazz. The result is still a more focused album where he maturely keeps everything together - not just by his strong and playful arrangements but also thanks to his smooth and dynamic singing voice.
Where the debut lacked the strong individual compositions, Be Good brings us several songs of highest quality and although a shortage of sold albums it may just have been the reason why Blue Note Records chose to present Porter a record deal after this very fine album.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 4 / 5 stars ]
