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Gregory Porter - Christmas Wish
A jazzy, soulful collection of holiday tunes that are perfect for fire-side listening on a cold winter's night!
Gregory Porter’s first festive-themed album, Christmas Wish, features new songs as well as top-notch interpretations of soul and jazz standards by Marvin Gaye, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder and Dinah Washington.
Porter's voice is a medium you can sink right into, and his classy Christmas album is perfect for a relaxed, warm glow of a gathering, sporting plenty of tastefully interpreted classics – the opening “Silent Night”, “Little Drummer Boy” and an excellent duet with the young Grammy Award-winning jazz star Samara Joy on “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”. Gentle piano-led ballad “Everything’s Not Lost” is the first of three self-penned songs Porter adds to the mix, with ladles of love, hope, charity and the spirits of caring and giving – especially on title track “Christmas Wish” – sweetening and enriching the brew. His voice is a deep blue velvet set in a warm, firelit chiaroscuro on the lovely “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, while Stevie Wonder’s rousing, percussive paean for equality on “Someday at Christmas” and Marvin Gaye’s languid funk of “Purple Snowflakes” are highlights.
Vince Guaraldi’s Sixties classic “Christmas Time is Here” is a piano-led ballad, fully stocked with Christmas essentials – carols, snowflakes, firesides, sleigh bells, families – and runs to a nifty double bass solo, too, while the closing “Heart for Christmas”, the third of Porter’s originals, brings it on home with a focus on delivering the child’s joy of Christmas back to the adults, too.
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The standout track for me though, is Porter’s hauntingly beautiful piano-led creation "Everything’s Not Lost," an offer of hope to those who are suffering or struggling. As a whole, Christmas Wish is refreshing... and given that modern-day festive albums can sometimes be the proverbial turkeys, the heart, soul and conscience displayed here should resonate long after the festivities have finished.
And tasteful, assured and warm as it is, Christmas Wish may well do just that. Feel free to listen to the record here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album...
