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JENNIFER PORTER – SHE DOES!

By Lawrence Lebo

Pianist/composer/vocalist/actress Jennifer Porter is classically and
jazz trained and does many styles of music! She’s sung with Classical
and Jazz Orchestras, including the world-famous Glenn Miller
Orchestra. Although she trained as an opera singer and classical
pianist, Jennifer considers herself a Roots Musician at heart. She
began playing piano at age five after sneaking out of bed to watch
a female boogie-woogie piano-player perform at one of her grand-
parents notorious cocktail parties! Jennifer is also an actress with
more than 85 professional stage credits, including portraying Patsy
Cline in “Always...Patsy Cline.”
On her latest release titled “Yes, I Do!” Ms. Porter explores
the roots of the blues through boogie-woogie and honky-tonk
piano and does so in her own inimitable style! Joined by
stellar renown musicians Jennifer plays piano, Wurlitzer or
Hammond B3 on her various tracks. Her polished vocals are
sophisticated and show jazz sensibilities. No ruff, raw or
gritty blues here. The album contains six original tunes and
two covers. Porter writes catchy lyrics and melodies. On the
title track “Yes, I Do” Jennifer writes “I’ll spend my time just
making rhymes into these / Hopeful little lines / And leave
this lonely broken heartache behind. / Cause I love you, I love
you, yes I do.”

I asked Jennifer Porter to tell about herself and her new
release ‘Yes, I Do!’.
This is what she told me ...

LL: Let’s start at the beginning! Would you tell us about where you grew up and about your family
please?

JP: Sure! I grew up in Southern Maine, in the United States. My parents are from Belfast on the
“Midcoast,” (my mom still likes to show us the house where she was born and where my dad lived when
they met!) but we lived in various places in and around Portland. My parents are very creative. They
used to like to design and build houses. They still do, and they’re in their 80s! They’d create gorgeous
homes with beautiful gardens and then, after a few years, they’d get bored and the creative itch to design
and create something else beautiful would get the best of them and they’d sell the house and start on a
new project. So, we moved quite a bit!

My father is a retired Veterinarian, and my mom has had many job titles, Telephone Operator, Pharmacy
Tech, Receptionist, Variety Store Owner -- you name it. She worked multiple jobs to get my dad through
Veterinary school. She wanted to go to college very much, too, but in those days banks wouldn’t give
student loans to single women, and no one would co-sign a loan for her. I was the first person to go to
college on her side of the family. My parents are both truly wonderful people.

There weren’t any professed musicians in our family, but my dad built his own guitar and banjo and
would sing and play at parties. His mother, my grandmother, played piano by ear and would entertain
at the notorious cocktail parties she and my grandfather would host. My grandfather liked to entertain
us all by playing the organ. I’ll never forget the sight of his little feet in white patent leather shoes flying
around on the bass pedals! Everyone in my family and extended family have nice voices, and all of them
are great at holding parts. One of my favorite things about getting together with my sisters is singing
in three-part harmony with them.

When I was five, at one of the aforementioned cocktail parties at my grandparents, I heard a woman
named Maxine playing boogie-woogie piano and was fascinated! The next day I began to pick out, by