Bahrain: Jazz music is a “cultural ambassador” that can be used to build bridges across borders.
Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Gregory Porter said that his music contained a personal message of “mutual respect and the ups and downs of love”.
In an exclusive interview with the GDN, he said that he believed jazz resonates with people around the world because it’s “of the spirit”.
“I believe – as I’ve travelled all over the world, be it the wealthiest, most Asian or most ‘white’ country – everyone has their own blues,” he said.
“I don’t mean in terms of sorrow and sadness, I’m talking about grounded music – tones of grandmother, of the soil, of the spirit.
“Everybody has their blues, and when they hear it in another culture, they say, I know that sound.
“I hear it in Arabic music, and when I hear it, it shakes me.
“When I hear certain tones, I think, that’s my grandmother; she has never been to an Arab country or someplace where I hear that tone or sound, but that connects us all in a way.
“There’s so much history in jazz, [singers] Oscar Brown Jr, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln – there are so many people who have left tidbits of messages like that.
“That’s why jazz always struck me, music that has a beautiful message as well. Coming from a tradition of gospel, messages of love weren’t a new thing for me.
“I would say that in terms of the desire for jazz to be in a way a cultural ambassador.
“It makes me travel to the furthest places in the world, the most understood and misunderstood places, and I think that’s a positive thing.
“For me, all my friends, want to come to Bahrain, want to go to places where we think we know what’s there, but we don’t.
“We want to go and see these faces and the reality.”
He said he’d love to do a collaboration with a Bahraini or Arab artist in the future.
“I would love to have a cultural collaboration – that’s something that’s always intrigued me, to step into a room with people of diverse cultures and come to make a piece of music,” said Mr Porter.
“Of the same accord, to come to the same place from different places, that’s what jazz is.
“I always tell my musicians, don’t do what I want you to do – do where you’re coming from. I wasn’t raised with your particular special thing that created your musical charisma.
“Let’s bring our own thing to the stage and see what happens – if you don’t do that with jazz, it’s a problem.
“I did a project recently with [classical cellist] Yo-Yo Ma, it’s called the Silk Road Project.
“At the recording in New York City, it was amazing, there was Asian, Arab musicians – and he’d say give me that thing that your mama taught you and put that on the record next to his classical music.
“In a way, even just the sound of that can bring about a mutual understanding and respect, by way of the clash of energies and beauties.
“Let’s bring our most beautiful things together and see what happens – for years we have been bringing the ugliest parts and smashing them together, but what happens when you bring the beautiful parts?
“I listen to music from around the world and say wow, I wish I could get into that – I want to jump in on that song.
“Sometimes in my career, when maybe things slow down for just a second, maybe I’ll get a chance to come two, three days in advance and do that kind of collaboration.
“I get the opportunity to do it sometimes when it’s built into a programme, not this time, but it’ll happen.”
Mr Porter also said that his mother helped him see the importance of respect.
“For me as I think of my life and my mother’s life, there’s lot of social justice in small way, but the overriding message is love,” he said.
“That’s what I’m thinking of in songs like No Love Dying.
“Love always happens, I’m always amazed [that] wherever I go in the world, I always get a feeling after coming off the stage that I’ve left a part of me there: how I feel about the world, on the stage.
“A song like Painted on Canvas, is about mutual respect, thinking about people who have less.
“There was a time when my mother got a new car, and I remember riding in the back seat.
“I was about eight or nine, and I was acting like a movie star, playfully pretending my mother was a chauffeur.
“Then she pulled over to the side of the road and picked up a homeless man, brought him to our house, and he stayed for a couple of weeks.
“He cleaned up and stopped drinking, and she would do that kind of thing all the time.
“That kind of energy is in my music, like on one of my new songs, Take Me to the Alley.
“I keep reiterating these themes of equal respect and helping somebody.”
He said he now tries to pass on those messages to his three-year-old son.
“I wrote a song for my son on the next record called Don’t Lose Your Steam, and it’s about him, me giving him my legacy, giving him something that he can take and pass on in his life and give to his child,” Mr Porter said.
“So she gave something to me and it’s stewed around in me and it’s coming out in my musical DNA, the way I talk, the way I raise my son, I want him to have that same thing swirling in him, pass it on to even his friends, his artwork, his child.
“I use the bridge as symbolism, if the bridge falls down, and the bottom falls out, don’t lose your personal integrity and your steam, your personal power – don’t give up.
“I think in coming to places where I think some barriers need to be taken down, and bringing some energy, some positive energy, it feels good to me.”
He said winning a Grammy for Liquid Spirit didn’t affect his process for his upcoming album, Take Me To The Alley.
“I don’t have fears or expectations or pressure from the Grammy Award,” he said.
“It was a beautiful experience, but I don’t put the pressure to replicate the sales and attention.
“If it comes, that’s great, but I’m trying to make a document that expresses myself and what I say at the time.
“If I record now as opposed to four months ago, I’ll have something additional to say – I’m pulling from the environment, the places I’ve been.
“Being here will bring about some energy that will find its way into my music next year or the year after.”
laala@gdn.com.bh
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