Membership director - greg fortune
In case you haven't heard, Greg Fortune, the self-contained singer, songwriter and musician is creating sounds reminiscent of the classics. Although blending Blues, R&B and Contemporary Jazz into a soulful gumbo, the music retains the intense flavor of each ingredient.
Born in Arizona, an army brat, he's experienced life on both U.S. coasts, having lived in several states as well as a briefly in Japan and later Sweden. "No matter where I've been, music is a major part of my memories," he emphasizes, "I grew up listening to artists like Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Prince and Michael Jackson. These legends, among many others, remain the musical benchmark."
He began teaching himself to play guitar at 13 years old and began writing songs and recording them while earning a degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. While an undergrad at A&T, he played guitar, keyboards and sang as a founding member of a Top 40 cover R&B band called "Premier".
The emerging artist takes the craft of songwriting very seriously and has attended a summer songwriting session at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. "The challenge in songwriting," he confides,"is capturing a thought, emotion, or story with only a few words, a bit of music and a few minutes. Anything non-essential is waste."
Fortune has released three full-length albums to date, Essential (2002), Solitude (2010) as Gregory Alan, his first and middle names, and most recently, As Blue Az U R (2021). Based out of Atlanta GA, Greg has performed exhaustively as a solo acoustic artist and is a favorite at local venues such as The Hard Rock Cafe', where in 2017, he completed a month long residency as a featured artist in their inaugural "Blues and Brews" series.