American jazz singer Gregory Porter hopes to ape his success in Europe at home

Jazz singer and songwriter Gregory Porter, who has just released his fourth album, Take Me To The Alley, has conquered Europe and is working hard on building the same profile in his native United States.

He would also like to spend more time in Asia (he played the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2014) but he and his hard-working band already perform an average of 250 shows per year.

“My schedule has been pretty intense for quite some time now,” he says over the phone from the southern US city of Georgia, after playing the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

“Sometimes we get offers in Asia, and I’m unable to do it because of bookings in another part of the world. It’s a matter of availability, but we had some strong energy with [2013 album] Liquid Spirit in Korea, and in Japan as well. I’m looking forward to more Asia tours.”

Since the 2010 release of his debut album, Water, which garnered him his first Grammy nomination, Porter, 44, by then already a seasoned live performer, has emerged as one of just a handful of rising jazz artists able to sell CDs in appreciable volumes.

Liquid Spirit won not just a nomination but the actual Grammy award for best jazz vocal album, and went gold in the UK. He is so popular there that he was invited to take part in this May’s major VE Day 70th anniversary celebration in London, singing as Time Goes By.