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HATS off to the organisers of the Spring of Culture for bringing jazz vocalist Gregory Porter to town for the opening of this season’s swinging session of musical entertainment.
He produced a mesmeric melody of moody and soulful masterpieces and showed how vocals are as powerful an instrument as the masterful musicianship produced by his band members, a tight little outfit consisting of piano, drums, big bass and sassy sax.
It’s clear how he has successfully ‘crossed over’ the jazz genre with an element of soul and gospel in his repertoire and a Grammy-award-winning ‘best jazz vocal album’, Liquid Spirit, to boot that made it in the charts back home in the US and the UK too.
His new album Take Me to the Alley comes out in May and the audience in Bahrain was treated to samples of this new material. It should achieve the same commercial success as his hit Hey Laura, my personal favourite and a ditty my teenage son has banned me from playing in the car because the lyrics get stuck in his head and he ends up singing the chorus all day.
Porter always wears a modified flat cap for public appearances, something he started donning after undergoing surgery on his skin. It soon became his ‘look’ but I was quite taken by the dazzling red shoes he was wearing on stage.
The performance was tight, full of emotion at times, but I was a little disappointed he didn’t come back for an encore, but that’s probably because half the audience started rushing out the door as soon as he stopped singing and stepped off stage.
The band played on … but the show should have continued. We will just have to wait for the new album. I would have loved to hear him come back with his fabulous rendition of The ‘In’ Crowd which was also released as a single. Unfortunately the night was spoiled by the ‘out crowd’ rushing to get to their cars.
– Stan Szecowka
