Vocalist, composer and entrepreneur Jonathan Gramling is back in church. As part of the Vivo Performing Arts fall series, Gramling is performing at a free event on Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. at Twelfth Baptist Church on Warren Street in Roxbury. Gramling is a multifaceted musician whose talents and interests are global and local.

Gramling’s journey into music is not a typical trajectory. Harvard educated with a degree in African American studies and sociology, he found solace and used his artistic talents with the Kuumba Singers, the college’s African American chorus. After graduating, Gramling headed into politics in Washington, D.C., before returning to his love of music. Nowadays he divides his time between running a music production company, working at Twelfth Baptist and singing his heart out.

The Banner caught up with Gramling a couple of weeks ago.

Banner: Tell us about the Oct. 3 event.

Gramling: I’ve been able to collect a group of musicians I’ve played with over the years. It’s a super group! We’ll be doing original music as well as covers. The performance will tell the story of how I became a musician and how I came to love different forms of music. We’ll be performing in the sanctuary.

Who is in the group?

Jonathan Singleton is the musical director and will also join Craig Powe on keys. Tyson Chase is on guitar, Andrew Ricketts is on drums, Christoff Glaude is on bass and Laurie Dow joins me on vocals.

The Twelfth Street Church is an important historical site: what is your connection to the church?

I have been part of the church’s music ministry for at least 10 years. Jonathan Singleton is the minister of music at the church.

I heard you’re originally from Philly. Tell us about your move from Philly to Boston.

I came up here for college and after graduating went to D.C. to work in politics and technology and education. Got married to a Harvard alum, moved to California and had a child. My wife got into graduate school at Harvard’s School of Education, so we moved back here. We’re divorced and she moved to Connecticut with our daughter. Boston is close by.

Any advice to singers and musicians who want to bridge the gospel and secular worlds?

In Boston it’s a very, very common thing for musicians to perform music in church as well as in secular settings. I never felt constrained. My dad is a pastor and I came up in the Baptist church. There was a time, in the 80s when it was felt that the church and the secular worlds need to be separate. The gap isn’t clear anymore. I believe that all music is sacred.

I heard about your production company: TBTM. Take Back the Media. What’s that about?

I founded that with a good friend: Derrick N. Ashong. We make music and business together. At one point we had traction and great success with a cover of, “Sweet Mother” particularly in Africa. Derrick is Ghanaian and he knew about the tune written by a Nigerian musician named Prince Nico Mbarga. After the business challenges related to the marketing of that, we decided to create a technology where artists and audiences could connect directly.

Any new projects we should know about?

“Time’s Up for the Billionaires TU4B” is a collaborative hip-hop album in support of Tache4MA26. Joe Tache is the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) candidate for U.S. Senate.

It involves dozens of local artists and producers from the Boston and Massachusetts hip-hop scene. I wrote, sang and rapped on the album. There are four tracks that I contributed lead vocals on: “Breathe Hope (We Will Win),” “Freedom Come,” “More Than Survive” and “T.W.O.” I was very happy to have the opportunity to write and record songs that politically and philosophically truly represent my beliefs about the world and how things should be. We need a collective solution to save our lives and our humanity in a world where food, water, shelter, safety and freedom are becoming more and more difficult and expensive to access.

Finally, I read a little about your medical challenges. Can I ask you about that? And how your faith helped you deal with this?

I had kidney failure in 2018.

In 2017 I had gotten divorced. It was a very, very difficult time. A lot of stress in my life. There were logistical issues: I was uninsured for a while. I had a real blessing with a kidney transplant and faith was a huge part of my recovery. So many changes were taking place from the illness. I cannot attribute my recovery to anything but God. And a huge part of that is belonging to the Twelfth Baptist Church: it is my spiritual home.

ON THE WEB

Learn more at vivoperformingarts.org/productions/jonathan-gramling-and-friends