Vienna Concert Hall

Gregory Porter’s pre-Christmas high mass

(Bild: ERIK UMPHERY)

In keeping with the Advent season, Gregory Porter's velvety soul voice spread a lively Christmas spirit at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

With one exception, the Christmas repertoire of the well-tempered vocal sound was far removed from the familiar titles and was actually written by Porter himself: With his inspired five-man band, the singer from Sacramento, California, with his characteristic cap as a visible trademark, choreographed a very special high mass of the Christmas season from a mixture of the familiar and the new project "Christmas Wish".

This alternates between soul, jazz and gospel and draws the audience into the middle of the action with an emphatic invitation to participate. Call and response in good tradition.

Gregory Porter is a captivating storyteller who transforms his personal experiences and memories into universally applicable values: So it's about love, understanding, against racism, for peace and mercy, carried out with his melodious powerful soul voice that truly envelops the soul and lets it take off.

Whether he is talking about the family's Christmas cooking and eating rituals, singing the endless loop of "I remember" that resonates with the audience for a long time to come, dressing up Christmas melancholy in gospel garb or turning Jahmal Nichols' rocking double bass solo - including the "Smoke on the Water" motif - into a puristically dense duet with Porter's short quotes from "My Girl" and "My Papa was a Rolling Stone". Time for feelings, time to get involved and time for diversity: in the spirit of Porter's musical plea against "musical genocide".