# Watch a video for “Revival,” the lead single from Gregory Porter’s forthcoming album: Photos, Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/01/19/watch-a-video-for-revival-the-lead-single-from-gregory-porters-forthcoming-album-photos-video/
- Published: 2020-01-19T20:40:21+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Gregory Porter intended the title of his new album, _ALL RISE_, to resonate on
multiple levels.**

“We hear that phrase when presidents or judges come into the room,” he says in a
press release for the album, which is due out on Blue Note on April 17, “but I’m
thinking _all of us_ rise — not just one person being exalted. We are all exalted
and lifted up by love. This is my political thought and my real truth. It comes 
from my personality, my mother’s personality, the personality of the blues, and 
of black people. It’s this idea of making do with the scraps, of resurrection and
ascension, and of whatever the current situation is, it can get better through love.”

That conviction has coursed through Porter’s recording career — from his debut album,
_Water, _released a decade ago, to his most recent, _Nat King Cole & Me_, from 2017.
Naturally it speaks loud and clear on the first single from _ALL RISE_: a stirring,
gospel-infused anthem called “Revival.” A video for the song premiered today.

“Revival” employs a familiar strategy for Porter, moving from uncertainty or struggle
in the verses (“I try to run, and I grow weary”) to soaring uplift in the chorus(“
You lift me higher / Out of the fire, out of the flames”).

The video, directed by Douglas Bernardt, adds a layer of fraught context to the 
song — opening with a scene that imagines a young man watching a news report about
the 1992 Los Angeles riots, sparked by the acquittal of four polices offers in the
Rodney King trial. That young man could be a stand-in for Porter, who was 19 at 
the time of the riots, and who has spoken out about the racism he encountered in
Bakersfield, the town where he grew up, and to which he eventually returned. It 
also bears an implicit tie to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and to the stories
of young men like Freddie Gray, who died in police custody in Baltimore in 2015.

In the video, that young man (played by dancer and choreographer Jemoni Powe) moves
through the world in a shifting scale: at times he shrinks to Ant Man size, as if
overwhelmed by the immensity of the struggle. (At one point we see him pursued by
a cat.) But his movements, informed by jook dance, are fluid and assured.

As the song progresses, and Porter’s encouragements catch hold, the figure in the
video grows to human scale and beyond — towering over his city. The closing shot
shows him in duplicate: peering through the front door of his house, and also looming
above it, as a protector. “There are so many things in life that can get you down
and make you feel small,” notes Porter, “whether it be racism, self-doubt, insecurity,
or financial situations. It’s about finding your source of strength to bring you
back to seeing who you truly are so that you can be restored to the giant that you
are.”

[[

_ALL RISE _was produced by Troy Miller, who is known for his work with soulful British
singer-songwriters — Emili Sandé, Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum — and easily applies
that spark to Porter. “Revival” is a fitting first taste, for the way that it invokes
a personal stamp, rooted in the gospel church, even as it reaches for a universal
feeling.

As Porter notes, _ALL RISE_ — which, as you may recall, is also the title of a large-
scale piece by Wynton Marsalis, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with a
100-piece choir — summons not only a ceremonial gesture but also an exhortation,
and a call to action.

Not to mention a path toward inner piece. “I was soothed by my voice as a child 
and I think that’s the same thing others get from it,” he says in the press notes.“
I’m trying to heal myself with these songs.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202001/
gp_crop.png?w=640&ssl=1)

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