New Release February 2020: Giorgi Mikadze presents Georgian MicroJamz
“I wanted to make a sort of bridge from ancient Georgia to our current world. It’s become my life’s goal to serve this idea, to let people know about Georgian music and culture, and why it’s so unique.”
Giorgi Mikadze
The folk music of Georgia is one of the earliest and richest polyphonic traditions in the world, despite being little known to the rest of the modern world. Combining a sense of national pride, musical invention and exploratory spirit, pianist/composer & arranger Giorgi Mikadze has created a striking new hybrid of traditional Georgian folk music and progressive microtonal jazz on his breathtaking debut album, Georgian Microjamz.
Due out February 28, 2020 via RareNoise Records, Georgian Microjamz discovers unexpected common ground between the ancient traditions of Mikadze’s native Georgia, where the Orthodox Christian church featured only vocal music in its services, and the very modern microtonal innovations of guitar great David “Fuze” Fiuczynski, with whom the keyboardist studied while at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.
Fiuczynski joins Mikadze to breathe life into this alien-sounding fusion, along with Greek-born bassist Panagiotis Andreou (Now vs. Now, Mulatu Astatke) and drummer Sean Wright (Musiq Soulchild, Taeyang). On three tracks the quartet is supplemented by the stunning vocals of Georgian choir Ensemble Basiani, while singer and ethnomusicologist Nana Valishvili adds a heart-wrenching vocal performance to “Moaning,” a powerful ode to the victims of the 2008 military conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Classically trained in his native Tbilisi, Mikadze didn’t set out to explore the music of the country he’d just left when he arrived at Berklee. It was in part the influence of peers and mentors that he saw investigating their own cultures and heritages in innovative ways that led him to cast his thoughts homeward.
Giorgi Mikadze : Microtonal Keyboards
David Fiuczynski : Fretless Guitars,
Panagiotis Andreou : Fretless Bass
Sean Wright : Drums
with
Ensemble Basiani on 4 (Elesa), 12 (Lazhghvash), 13 (Tseruli)
Nana Valishvili on 6 (Moaning)
1 Metivuri (Prelude)
2 Dumba Damba
3 Shedzakhili (Interlude)
4 Elesa
5 Mirangula (Interlude)
6 Moaning
7 Racha (Interlude)
8 Maglonia
9 Gelati (Interlude)
10 Kartlos Blues
11 Gurian Lullaby (Interlude)
12 Lazhghvash
13 Tseruli
All compositions by Giorgi Mikadze
except 5, 11, 12 (arrangements of traditional Georgian folk songs)
Published by RareNoisePublishing (PRS)
Recorded by Matt Hayes at Wellspring Sound. from February 2 to Feb 4
Vocal Overdubs on 4 (Elesa), 6 (Moaning), 12 (Lazhghvash), 13 (Tseruli):
recorded by Mako Ghviniashvili at Georgian Chanting Foundation Recording Studio
Edited by David Fiuczynski
Produced by David Fiuczynski & Giorgi Mikadze
Mixed and Mastered by Javier G. F. Escudero at Estudios Cubex
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords : Giacomo Bruzzo
Artwork by ROK
Release Date : February 28th, 2020
Full Press Release : Click Here
Cat. No.:
RNR116 (CD)
RNR116LP (DOUBLE TRANSPARENT ORANGEVINYL IN GATEFOLD)
