Jazz Festival: This Year's Must-see Gigs
By Mariam Chanishvili
Wednesday, April 4
TBC Status and Eastern Promotion presented the 2018 program and upcoming projects at Tbilisi Event Hall.
Deputy CEO at TBC Bank, Nika Kurdiani and Director of Eastern Promotion, Giorgi Kereselidze made a presentation on the upcoming events.
For the 21st time this year, Tbilisi Jazz Festival assembles some of the finest jazz musicians in the world. Instead of being held in fall, it will take place in spring this year – April 28-30.
Tbilisi Jazz Festival 2018 will feature Miles Electric Band – ft. special guest - Ravi Coltrane, Naturally 7, and the Bad Plus.
The Miles Electric Band is an eleven-member ensemble of world-class talents featuring performances from a unique roster of players. The band revisits the repertoire from Davis’ electric period as a framework for modern jazz innovation.
“The Miles Electric Band” is now a featured part of the Davis family’s plan to bring Miles Davis’ music to a new generation of music lovers through festival appearances and recordings.
“Naturally 7” is an American music band with a distinct a cappella style they call "vocal play," which, according to group leader Roger Thomas, is "the art of becoming an instrument using the human voice to create the sound." They simulate the sounds of an instrumental band using only their voices, mouths and distortion effects. The group was formed in 1999 in New York City.
The Bad Plus is a jazz trio from Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisting of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Orrin Evans, and drummer Dave King. The Bad Plus was established in 2000.
Within the framework of this year's Jazz Festival, traditionally famous jazz-performers will hold master classes for Georgian students.
On International Jazz Day, April 30 - The Miles Electric Band ft. Ravi Coltrane will perform at Tbilisi Concert Hall.
In November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated April 30 as International Jazz Day in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe. International Jazz Day is chaired and led by the UNESCO Director General and legendary jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, who serves as a UNESCO Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue and Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
The 12th Black Sea jazz Festival will be headlined by the well-known British musician and former Led Zeppelin lead singer, Robert Plant.
Plant will perform at the Black Sea Arena, which opened two years ago in the seaside town of Shekvetili.
Another part of the festival will feature concerts in Batumi tennis club.
Black Sea Jazz Festival will host Robert Glasper, Taylor McFerrin, Trombone Shorty, Terrace Martin, etc.
Jazz enthusiasts are also invited to attend Jazz and Wine Kakheti festival in Georgia’s winemaking region, and a gig by the British band The Chemical Brothers in the city of Rustavi.
The tickets are available at the box office and tkt.ge
(Tbilisi Jazz Festival - from 26 March and Black Sea Jazz Festival – 2 April).
