Not so long ago Gregory Porter was playing a tiny basement jazz club in Soho. That was it. To a hundred or so people who felt they were in on the biggest secret in the world.

That was in his Water days, a mere five years ago. And two years later with Be Good things were starting to change but he was still a club artist just about.

Three years are a long time in jazz and seeing him for the latest time last week charm thousands at an outdoor concert at Bleinheim Palace in a double bill with Van Morrison is just one indication of the scale he is operating on these days after winning the Grammy for best jazz album. Since then and in a front of a TV audience of millions it was on to Glastonbury and a namecheck from Pharrell Williams no less. Liquid Spirit itself has gone gold in the UK, a rarity for a jazz album, actually any album these days in the face of pitiful sales if you strip out streaming. And it’s not just here but all over Europe and in America.

And that scale if anything is expanding still more as next year, it’s just been announced, Porter will undertake one of his biggest tours with a whopping 16 dates in England, Scotland and Wales in April alone bookended by an appearance at the Albert Hall in London on 4 April and Symphony Hall, Birmingham on the 24th. The full dates are here