The FINANCIAL — From the 28th of February to the 2nd of March this year Tbilisi will host the 22nd Jazz Festival, this time headlined by none other than 20 Grammy award winner, the legendary American guitar player Pat Metheny. Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vakhtang Kakhidze, Tbilisi Big-Band and the students of the jazz faculty of Tbilisi State Conservatoire orchestrated by Revaz Kiknadze will participate in the Festival.
The 22nd Jazz Festival will have its grand opening in the State Conservatoire, with the new project Tbilisi Big-Band & New Jazz Generation. This will be an event where the younger generation of jazz musicians will meet their predecessors to create a tasty musical jam.
Tbilisi Jazz Festival is organized by Eastern Promotions and TBC Status and supported by the Ministry of Tbilisi City Hall and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia.
On the 1st of March, the Festival will host the legendary headliner himself alongside virtuoso drummer Jonathan Barber and bass player Darek Oleszkiewics.
On the 2nd of March Tbilisi Event Hall will hold the closing event, presenting Pet Metheny playing the album “Beyond the Missouri Sky and more” alongside Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra.
The 22nd Jazz Festival is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Sport and Culture, and the Mayor of Tbilisi.
The proud winner of 20 Grammy awards and arguably the most creative guitar player of our era, Pat Metheny is the one and only artist in the music history to win awards in 10 different categories.
His style of playing does not really belong to any specific genre, however without any question the unique mastery of music that Pat Metheny has, simply goes beyond the jazz world as we know it. Metheny is one of those very special people who dares to make an experiment, yet in such a way as to remain appealing to audiences.
Since the age of 13, when he first started playing guitar, he has always been developing as a musician. He graduated from universities Miami and Berklee.
In 1974 he released his first recording with Paul Bley and Jaco Pastorius.
1974-1977 marks a very special period in his career, because of his collaboration with Gary Burton and his band.
In 1978 Metheny established his own band with Lyle Mays (piano), Mark Egan (bass), and Dan Gottlieb (drums). This was the tipping point in Metheny’s career as he became a recognized jazz musician whose concerts were always a target for music lovers, eager to fill every single avenue where he performed.
The desire to unleash creative potential in his music always led him to new experiments, therefore he avoided producing predictable music.
It is important to outline several of his works such as:
- 1980 – Collaboration with Dewey Redman, Mike Brecker and Charlie Haden resulted in an album called 80/81.
- 1990 – Tour with Herbie Hancock and his quartet.
- Trio album with Dave Holland, Roy Haynes.
- Collaboration with Joshua Redman.
- Recordings with Sonny Rollins.
Each and every recording of Pat Metheny’s is a reflection of his uniqueness.
As an example, the 1994 album “Zero Tolerance for Silence” established Pat Metheny as one of the most creative performers of all time.
And his compositions from “ECM RECORDS” once again outlined the reason why he is a world class musician.
“Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories)” an album recorded in 1997 alongside Charlie Haden still remains his most famous work. This is the album that got him a Grammy award, and the album the legendary musician will play in front of his audience at the 22nd Tbilisi jazz festival.
