All Rise landed as a fully formed statement from an artist at the height of his powers.
All Rise arrived in August 2020 to immediate and sustained critical attention. This was no slow-burn discovery or cult record — critics noticed right away. Hot Press gave it five stars. AllMusic awarded 4.5 out of 5. The Arts Desk, Evening Standard, and Jazzwise all settled on four stars. Even the more measured responses acknowledged something substantial. The album charted across Europe and earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album at the 63rd Annual Awards, cementing its reach beyond jazz circles alone.
By this point, Porter had refined his approach into something unmistakable: orchestral arrangements that sit somewhere between jazz sophistication and soul warmth, built on a rhythm section anchored by Jahmal Nichols and Chris Hill on bass. The horn section — Graeme Blevins on baritone saxophone, James Gardiner-Bateman on tenor, Tom Rees-Roberts and Chris Storr on trumpets, and Trevor Mires on trombone — moves with precision, never cluttering the space. Chip Crawford on piano keeps everything grounded. The production by Troy Miller and Kamau Kenyatta lets Porter's voice sit front and center, which is exactly where it belongs.
This is Porter doing what he does best: confident, unhurried, backed by musicians who understand restraint. All Rise is not a departure or a reinvention. It's the sound of someone who knows who he is and has the resources and collaborators to execute that vision cleanly. It charted because people heard it and wanted to own it.