The new star of the Venice Jazz Festival answers to the name of Gregory Porter, guest of Veneto Jazz at Teatro La Fenice on 9 July, in the artist’s only Italian date in 2024. Winner of two Grammy Awards, but above all the one who brought contemporary jazz to the general public with his baritone and enveloping voice, Gregory Porter is today an international artist who collects successes and sold out all over the world, with a transversal audience fascinated by a style that combines jazz, soul and gospel. Following in the footsteps of the legendary musicians who have graced the stage of the Teatro La Fenice in recent years, from Winton Marsalis to Burt Bacharach, from Bobby McFerrin to Keith Jarrett and many others, Gregory Porter represents the American soul singer who has conquered the planet with his marvellous voice and the immediacy of his songs, performing at the most prestigious events, from the Glastonbury Festival to Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, and the launch of Nasa’s Mars Perseverance Rover. Already evident from his first work, Water, was that sense of timeless maturity characteristic of the giants of blues, gospel and soul, his masters. And indeed, consecration came already with his second album, Be Good, which earned him an endless series of accolades, even to the point of making him sit alongside those same giants he was inspired by.