Festival Schedule
Friday
8:30 PM	Gregory Porter Featuring: The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Paul Carr	Performance	Ronnie Wells Main Stage
6:00 PM	Gregory Porter Interview with Miyuki Williams	Interview	MAJF Juke Joint
Saturday
11:30 AM	Gregory Porter--Vocal Master Class; "Finding Your Voice"	Master Class	Billy Taylor Room

Bio

With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Grammy nominee, Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis has gone on record to call him “a fantastic young singer.” A debut release it may be, yet “Water” flows with a sense of timelessness that reflects the seasoned talents of the giants of blues, gospel and soul that have influenced Porter throughout his career. Some of the singers that Porter cites as influential are familiar – Nat King Cole, Joe Williams and Donny Hathaway and others, such as the pastor of the church he attended as a child among them – may never realize their impact on his development as an artist. While the work of singers such as Hathaway or Cole obviously helped to shape Porter’s vocal styling, his own worldview, as evidenced in his seven original compositions and his striking interpretation of classic songs.Gregory Porter has made the world his musical home. A frequent guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Porter also maintains a residency at Smoke Jazz in New York. He appears on 2 tracks on the new Nicola Conte album, appeared on the Jools Holland BBC show in mid April. He has participated in the Elb Jazz Festival in Hamburg, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta.

More on Gregory Porter

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