17th annual Tbilisi Jazz Festival opens tonight

STANLEY CLARKE with Georgian jazz pianist Beka Gochiashvili will close the Tbilisi Jazz Festival 2014. Photo by Tbilisi Jazz Festival Facebook.

Agenda.ge, 23 Oct 2014 - 14:40, Tbilisi,Georgia

Lovers of jazz music have the chance to enjoy shows by accomplished international jazz performers at the 17^th Tbilisi Jazz Festival.

The festival will open later today with a joint performance by prolific composer and prodigious six-string talent Di Meola and Michel Camilo Trio at the Tbilisi Concert Hall. The festival will continue until October 27.

For the first time of the festival’s history, a painting exhibition of Georgian artist David Mchedlishvili and art sale named All That Jazz will be held at the entrance of the Concert Hall today.

Of tonight’s opening acts, Di Meola, has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date, with a musical career spanning more than three decades.

The other musician to take to the stage tonight is Camilo – a Grammy-award winning pianist and composer from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He specialized in jazz, Latin and classical piano work.

Meanwhile, one of the greatest guitarists in today’s world of jazz and rock, David Fiuczynski, will perform in the festival on October 25. Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen and Georgian-born drummer and composer George Melikishvili [George Mel] will also feature in this year’s Tbilisi Jazz Festival.

Four-time Grammy winner and world renowned acoustic and electric bassist Stanley Clarke will close the Tbilisi Jazz Festival 2014. Clarke is described as a true pioneer in jazz and bass, with some labelling him a "living legend” who has been lauded with every conceivable award available to a musician in his over 40-year career as a bass virtuoso.

The annual event began in 1998 and since then, organisers strived to promote world class music in the region as well as promoting the best Georgian music and artist abroad. The first jazz festival was held in Georgia during the Soviet times, where events were held in 1978, 1986, 1989.

The 17^th Tbilisi Jazz Festival is able to take place thanks to support from Georgia’s Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection and financial aid of TBC Bank.