All that jazz

As jazz singer-songwriter Gregory Porter releases his first-ever Christmas album, the Grammy winner talks family, festivities and using music as medicine with Elle Gordon

Gregory Porter is in Dublin’s Dylan Hotel, as Christmas tunes lilt in the background. e two-time Grammy Award winner, who is regarded as one of the greatest jazz singers of our time, orders a drink as he recalls a standout festive memory from his childhood, growing up in Bakers eld, California.

“One of the most important Christmases for myself and my brother was when we both got matching Spiderman shirts,” the 52-year-old says. “So we got those and our family wanted us to pose in these shirts for pictures, and you know, there were responsible adults in my family. I don’t know what happened this time but there was a roaring re going and there was a wooden broom and a poker.

“For the picture, me and my brother decided to stick these in the re. e broom caught re and we were dripping molten broom plastic all over the carpet, and the poker was red hot. So, I have the red-hot poker, my brother has the burning broom, and we looked at that picture for years and we’re like, ‘What a memory!’” he laughs.

Growing up with seven siblings, he has plenty of Christmas memories to choose from, but his early roots in music are clear. “We had one Christmas, and the lights were o for some reason, so we had a family talent show by candlelight and ashlight. at was very memorable as well.”

Gregory’s late mother Ruth, a minister, encouraged his musical ability (his father was mainly absent). However, it wasn’t always a given that he would go down a musical path; as a teenager, he won a full scholarship to

San Diego State University for his American football skills, until a shoulder injury put paid to his sporting career. But sport’s loss was music’s gain.

A er moving to New York, Gregory was an actor rst, then started singing and released his rst album at the age of 40, to critical acclaim. Global recognition soon followed for the singer, who is immediately recognisable by his trademark hat.

ree years ago, Gregory lost his beloved brother, Lloyd to complications from Covid-19, so he is acutely conscious how Christmas can be a hard time for many who are missing loved ones who have passed away.

“I had so much despair that rst Christmas a er Lloyd,” he re ects. “I was waiting for Christmas and New Year’s to come like two giant heroes, and save me from myself in a way. If I am totally honest, it was depression and deep loneliness from his loss that won’t be xed. And I suppose I have come to realise that this is just something that you live with.

“You wear your grief and that’s okay, and when I came to that conclusion, it was probably very helpful. You don’t get over it. You just live with it. I live with the fact that he is just going to be missed. Christmas was his time to shine and be funny and just be amazing like he was, and super-generous in terms of his time. Everyone felt like they got some ‘Lloyd’ time and he gave everybody time. Everybody got a piece of him, so it was this huge void when he wasn’t there and still is.”

Gregory has referred to music as medicine in the past, and it continues to help him, including with his new album.

“I see my mother in the music in Christmas Wish, and in the memories of some of these traditional songs is my brother. He was there when I learned ‘Silent Night. I am probably getting my own emotions out, at the same time as speaking to a wider situation.

“I write from quite a nostalgic place. With ‘Christmas Wish’ (the song), I am talking about an actual Christmas that happened. My mother cooked all of this food – turkey, greens, cornbread, sweet potato pie, all this fantastic stu – and sat it on the table. We, all eight children, prayed over the food and then loaded into the van at my mother’s direction and we went and gave the food away, and ate the le overs a er homeless people ate. Maybe it was a teaching moment but also it was a golden memory. We all appreciate it now – to be outside of ‘self ’ on Christmas Day and do that for other people was just cool.”

Christmas is a time when he gets to take some time o . “I travel so much that when it’s time to spoil my kids (he has two sons, Demyan and Lev), I try to,” he says. “I’ll decorate the tree with Nat King Cole on the record player. I’ll start making some of the food before Christmas, like sweet potato pie, just to have that smell in the house. at scent goes with that music. I want them to have similar memories to what I had, that sound when you invite family over and it’s, ‘Oh, how you doing?’ is kind of insular gathering that family does at Christmas, checking up on each other, pausing, the renewal that happens at New Year’s. I want my children to experience what that feels like.”

Speaking of New Year’s, does he set goals for himself? “O en, it is creative things or something to do with music. To go deeper, to ask questions, to nd the story, all of these things. Maybe it goes back to this record, this idea of renewal and change. Certainly I am going to try to be more optimistic.”

Gregory Porter’s Christmas Wish (Blue Note/ Decca Records)

I’ll decorate the tree with Nat King Cole on the record player