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Rating: Excellent |
When a singer presents Nat King Cole as his primary influence, a calling card as eloquent as that of Wynton Marsalis (who doesn't hesitate to describe the artist in question as "a fantastic young singer") and credits his debut album with James Spaulding, a saxophonist and flutist who has worked with Sun Ra, Max Roach, and Wayne Shorter, it's unlikely a hypothetical reviewer would have much more to say.
But because every certainty is almost always the child of doubt, we let Water, Gregory Porter's first opera, slip into the reader's mind on an afternoon of heavy, endless rain. And perhaps prophetically so, with such a title. What happens next can be described with a dull and overused cliché, but also a very precise one. Pure musical magic, captivating listening, a distancing from reality. Nothing new, when push comes to shove. Porter eschews experimental jazz, tackling songs full of sax solos, absorbing certain Van Morrison-esque atmospheres, and often finding himself entangled in an intimate, melancholic vein.
Amidst this melancholy, however, the most biting episodes are those where the groove gains ground. "1960 What?", for example, vibrates in an instrumental crescendo as Porter alternates between almost spoken lyrics, occasionally teetering on the edge of soaring, and the timeless call and response. A magnificent display of control over tone, volume, and color. "Skylark," "But Beautiful," and "Water" itself sound like beautiful nocturnes (and in the latter, the opening track, "Wash Me, Wash Me, Wash Me!", so emphasized, seems like a tribute to the gigantic Al Green of "Take Me to the River").
Less successful is the crooner deviation of "Magic Cup," a bit contrived in its delivery, but easily forgotten after hearing the three-minute a cappella of "Feeling Good," a lesson in the history of black music. Or rather, in its enduring power. Gregory Porter is a classy singer, and one hopes he'll be heard again soon with new songs. The attention he received abroad on popular shows like Late Night with David Letterman and the Today Show seemed to herald a breakthrough with the general public.
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