Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Your Wednesday Moment Of Simply Beautiful





I was knocked off my feet by this tune from Gregory Porter. It's the basics, executed flawlessly. And that may be what I find so refreshing, rewarding and moving.

I generally stay away from this particular brand of jazz and rhythm & blues. I prefer one or the other. But Gregory Porter's new record "Liquid Spirit" is special. It never shows off and Porter never oversings. He doesn't have to. There are many fantastic musical moments on this record, but none quite as special as "Hey Laura."

(H/T to cmealha)

10 comments:

Shriner said...

Maybe it's me, but I just hear a reworking of "Rainy Night In Georgia" (apart from the horn, of course...)

Not that it's bad, but when songs remind me that much of something else, I have a hard time disassociating them from the other.

Noam Sane said...

Really really nice! Thanks for turning me on to this, I'm going to have to pick it up.

Anonymous said...

Sal, I respect your taste, so I was stunned by this. It's terrible!
Flat, plodding, trite.
So bad, the Rainy Night.. comparison never occurred to me, but Shriner's right, it sounds like me trying to sound like Brook Benton .. and I suck!

Sal Nunziato said...

I don't expect everyone to like everything I like, but I will say this. I don't see anything resembling Rainy Night In Georgia except for basic arrangement, and it's seems unfair to use that as the first piece of criticism. Everything is derivative of something. There are far worse offenders than this if we're going for "songs that rework other songs."

"Flat, plodding, trite" is just completely off the mark, especially if the comnparison is so strong to a song that both you Anon and Shriner both seem to love.

I stand by both this track and this album.

vanwoert said...

I liked this song a lot. It reminded me more of Van Morrison than Brook Benton. Love the SOTD, Pure Prairie League's "Bustin'Out" is as good as that genre has to offer. RIP Mick Ronson, love those strings.

A walk in the woods said...

Nice! In subject matter, and in his delivery, it reminds me a bit of Bill Wither's "Maybe She'll Be Happier".

Anonymous said...

I don't hear Rainy Night (a song I love so much I learned how to play it on guitar) but I like it anyway. Nice understated arrangement, well sung.

Going back to the John Paul Keith post (great name, by the way) rockin' tune and I like the mention of ideal album length. One of the worst things about the move to CDs was artists feeling like they had to fill them up. Less is often more. Some of those 65 and 70 minute discs would have been better if they'd clocked in at 40 or 45 minutes. My .02.

buzzbabyjesus said...

Yes. It made me glad I have ears.

Shriner said...

So, saying this was a "reworking" of RNIG -- was a bit much.

I'm just saying that after the first 30 seconds, all I wanted to do was hear RNIG instead because the vocal melody reminded me of the verses (not chorus) of RNIG

Songs that do that to me -- I never go back to because the other song sticks out so much. (Unless it's an intentional pastiche like "This Way" by Lyn Saga...)

Jeff Matthews said...

Sweet, sad, subtle. Nice touch of musical umami.