Take Me to the Alley

If there’s nothing on Take Me to the Alley to scare away Porter’s existing audience, it still sounds less like music made for a mass market than that of a man who happened to have found one while following his own path.

Again Porter delivers passion and craft in abundance, owing to the songwriting, the acoustic-jazz arrangements (by producer Kamau Kenyatta and pianist Chip Crawford), and his corduroy-warm baritone, pliant and powerful.

Throughout the album, which the singer produced with Kamau Kenyatta, Porter matches these cozy sentiments with modest, small-scale arrangements--mostly keys, bass and drums--that sound shaped more by the gigs he's played over the last three years than by any desire to experiment in the studio. But Porter’s resting state is a compelling one.

It may be resolutely old-fashioned and, for sure, we’ve heard it all before, but the sheer pleasure in Porter’s singing is all but impossible to resist.

If there's a knock against Take Me to the Alley, it's that it feels a bit long. Editing out two or three tunes would have heightened its impact. That Porter doesn't break new ground here isn't a big deal; he doesn't need to.