new orleans – Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer PJ Morton returns home with a new album and memoir during his Saturday afternoon performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, as the eight-day festival draws to a close. I am.
Morton was the son of a preacher, and his parents were ministers. Paul and Debra Morton are well-known around the city and said they look forward to taking the stage at the Fair Grounds every year.
“Jazz Fest always feels like home,” Morton said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It feels like a family reunion. Like everyone else, we want food. We get to see all our friends, we get to see everyone. There's nothing better than that.”
Morton said he doesn't take for granted the love he feels at performances in his hometown and around the world.
“I'm amazed at the size of the audience and the size of the room we can play in,” he said. “Joy started with a small club playing for 20 to 50 people. Now it's in the thousands. I love watching it grow. It's special to me on every level.
“I hope my fans go away thinking they had a good time. I want to give people everything I have and for people who are already familiar with my work to go away knowing that I want people to feel that, and I want people who aren't familiar with this “PJ Morton kid” to feel that. ”
Since New Orleans is home, he said there's always something special about the city.
“We play songs here that we don't play anywhere else, like 'New Orleans Girl,' which we wrote for Jazz Fest 10 years ago,” he said.
Morton has been Maroon 5's keyboardist since 2012, the same year he also released his debut solo EP, “Following My First Mind.'' Maroon 5's lead singer, Adam Levine, was featured on lead her single “Heavy”. The following year, Morton released his first major label debut album, New Orleans. In 2017, she released her first self-released studio album, Gumbo, which earned her two Grammy nominations.
In 2019, he won the Best R&B Grammy Award for “Say So” and the Best Traditional R&B Performance Award for “How Deep Is Your Love.” Since then, he has won three more Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Album and Album of the Year, and this year won Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Good Morning.”
Morton said at Jazz Fest that fans can expect to hear a mix of old and new songs, including songs from his latest project, Cape Town to Cairo. This collection was created over 30 days during a trip to South Africa and Nigeria. , Ghana and Egypt.
On Friday, he released a new single, “Smoke & Mirrors,” which is about “challenging preconceptions” and has a “message of coming back to yourself.”
He said the project taught him to trust his instincts.
“I wrote every day for 30 days and recorded every day,” he said. “This work was all written in Africa and now I'm offering it to the world. On my last album, Watch the Sun, I played a lot of songs with heavy hitters like Stevie Wonder and Nas. We did a duet, but because of the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about everything. This is the end of that chapter. I couldn't think too much about this. I was inspired by the moment. I wanted to run free. And it gave me real deadlines. I learned that with limitations comes freedom.”
In addition to music, Morton said his memoir “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” will be released on November 12th.
“I don't usually talk about my journey. I focus on my work, making albums and touring,” he said with a laugh. “But in the last few years, with the Grammys and being able to do all of this independently, owning the masters and making my own decisions, it's nice to put that on paper.” I thought it was time. “Emotions” will be his 20th anniversary in October. I thought it would be a good opportunity to share this monument and let people know that some of the crazy initiatives I did actually worked. I was able to do it my way, this way, and hopefully inspire others to stick to their guns along their own journeys. ”
Jazz Fest concludes its eight-day run on Sunday. Other headliners on Saturday include Queen Latifah, Neil Young Crazy Horse, Greta Van Fleet, Tab Benoit and Sonny Landreth.
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