Gregory Porter, Pizza Express Jazz Club - review

The success of Porter's debut album, Water, has prompted a swift follow-up, Be Good, due for release tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, and the mere mention of this was enough to induce whoops of delight on Saturday night. "Security - keep an eye on that section there," he nimbly responded.

A big man with a big voice, his room-filling baritone was a major asset in this intimate venue but so too were his timing, his clear diction, the melisma of his gospel upbringing - his mother was a preacher - and the creativity of his scatting, never frantic but measured, like a trombone solo.

Noteworthy, too, was the careful way he enabled his band, a slick New York trio with a brilliant Japanese altoist, Yosuke Sato, to shape each number.

A useful songwriter, he shunned standards in favour of such substantial originals as Way You Want to Live, On My Way to Harlem, and the excellent Real Good Hands (as in: Mama don't worry about your daughter, you're leaving her in ...).

But there were some demerits, including the occasional absence of a final chord - a silly device which leaves a song in mid-air - and Sato's exasperating switches from the sublime (Cannonball Adderley at full tilt) to the ridiculous (Kenny G with a slo-mo vibrato).

Gregory Porter
Pizza Express Jazz Club
Dean Street, W1D 3RW