We'd tell you Gregory Porter is back, but you probably already knew. You probably felt the earth rumbling, announcing the man's bone-deep baritone, or you felt the air change as the warmth of his sound filled the atmosphere like a hug from above. That's because All Rise, his sixth studio album, marks a return to Porter's beloved original songwriting — heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. Produced by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sandé), the set also represents the evolution of Porter's art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate, and universal too. After 2017's Nat King Cole & Me, Porter knew two things: one, he'd bring in an orchestra for his next LP (check), and, two, music is medicine. In the spirit of that latter revelation, All Rise brims with songs about irrepressible love, plus a little protest, because the road to healing is bumpy.

"Yes, you could say that I went big," says Porter about his latest, which combines the talents of his longtime loyal bandmates, a handpicked horn section, a 10-member choir, and the London Symphony Orchestra Strings. "But, quite frankly, the way I write in my head, it all happens with just voice and piano first, and it's built up from there. It feels good to get back to the rhythms and the styles and the feelings and the way that I like to lay down my own music from start to finish."

That blurry relationship is practically coded into Porter's DNA. One of eight siblings raised by a minister mother in a poor part of Bakersfield, young Gregory found his voice both by singing in church and by studying her Nat King Cole records at home. Though Cole's talent, wisdom, and poise made him something of a surrogate father to a musically gifted boy who lived in his own head, it was a football scholarship that eventually carried Porter from California's Central Valley to San Diego State University. An injury derailed his athletic career, but he found a mentor in producer Kamau Kenyatta, who brought him into a Hubert Laws session and has worked with Porter ever since (in fact, he co-produced All Rise's L.A. sessions). After college, Porter moved to New York to work the kitchen in his brother's Bed-Stuy cafe by day, and jazz clubs by night.

Though Porter had an acclaimed role in the original 1999 Broadway cast of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues — and staged his own Nat King Cole & Me musical in 2004 — it was inevitable that he'd became known for his songs. That was made abundantly clear when both of Porter's indie albums — 2010's Water and 2012's Be Good — received Grammy nominations, paving the way for his world-beating 2013 Blue Note debut, Liquid Spirit, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. He hasn't let down his legion of fans since, whether collaborating with Disclosure on "Holding On," scoring another Grammy for Take Me to the Alley (2016), or telling his life story through Cole's songbook. Like others, Porter is still surprised by his runaway success, but he has a theory: "I was soothed by my voice as a child and I think that's the same thing others get from it. I'm trying to heal myself with these songs."

And that's the thing about love that All Rise keeps circling. Even when it's painful, confusing, out of reach, or under attack, love is ultimately curative. Hit play on the gorgeous torch song "If Love Is Overrated" and tell us you don't identify with Porter as he abandons logic for a mere chance at seeing love's promise bloom. Or drop the needle on "Revival" and just try to pretend you aren't lifted by the spirit no matter your personal faith or affiliation. Once again, Porter cuts through the noise of genres and the mess of life to reach us all where we live: the heart.

"The next great male jazz singer" -NPR Music

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