Monday October 20th

Sydney Opera House

Review by Jammin’ Saturday

Love was swirling all around as Gregory Porter and his quintet dazzled the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall’s adoring audience. Opening with ‘Revival’ from All Rise 2020, Mr Porter of impressive stature and signature hatted presence charmed with his warm responses to the obligatory call outs of “I love you Gregory” and interacted with a fan in the choir stalls who just wanted the hazy smoke turned off!

Jazz, gospel and soul tunes, his own compositions, highlighted Porter’s mellifluous honey treacle vocals and some mighty fine solos from the band. In the line-up were longtime colleagues Tivon Pennicott on tenor sax, Jahmal Nichols laying it down on bass, Emmanuel Harrold working the drums, Ondrej Pivec on Hammond and the legendary Chip Crawford on piano & Rhodes.

With a seamless set list, the service offered ‘On My Way To Harlem’ from Be Good 2012 and ‘Musical Genocide’, a protest on the death of blues and soul featuring a blistering bass solo by Nicols. There were hallelujah’s as we were invited to “clap your hands now’” for a gospel sing along in ‘Liquid Spirit’ and a reflective interplay of Hammond organ and piano for ‘Hey Laura’.

Porter continued to draw us into his inner sanctum, affirming the power and fluid phrasing of his voice, sharing stories of childhood church meets on the street in Bakersfield, California and the loss of his beloved brother so recently. Closing out the concert, Porter gently walked off stage followed by band members individually but the crowd wanted more, demanded more, standing and applauding for two joyous encores.

Let’s pray this tour, heading to Brisbane, Melbourne’s International Jazz Festival and Perth, is a precursor to another Porter gathering soon.