Gregory Porter: 'Once I heard Irish music, I was like, ‘That’s the blues of another kind’'

As the American star prepares to play the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, he talks kindred spirits, tragic loss, and how music is still an emotional thing for him. Plus... a panel of other festival highlights 

US jazz singer Gregory Porter is at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival.  (Francois Guillot/AFP via Getty Images)

When Gregory Porter was 21, his mother told him to follow his dreams and become a singer. Her words stayed with him– not least because she was seriously ill with cancer at the time and would die soon afterwards. Through all the years that followed – the many highs and the occasional low – the Grammy-winning artist has carried that final wish close to his heart.

“It sounds like such a simple thing – our last conversation. But I had no licence before that to pursue a music career,” says the acclaimed jazz vocalist, speaking ahead of two sellout Guinness Cork Jazz Festival shows at the city’s Opera House on Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25.