Black Sea will boil again

Year on year listening to high quality music and seeing living legends on stage has become more frequent for Georgians as the company Eastern Promotion has brought world class music to the region and organised jazz festivals and concerts by major individual jazz stars since 1998.

After the February-March jazz season in Tbilisi, containing unforgettable concerts by the Frank McComb Trio, JoJo Mayer & Nerve, John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension and Dean Brown with Dennis Chambers, the year of exclusive performances is merely gathering pace. On July 15-18 the seaside resort of Batumi [in Adjara] will host one of the biggest musical events in Georgia, the 4th Black Sea Jazz Festival.

“This year we have a novelty. For the first time in Batumi Black Sea Jazz Festival history we will offer fans unforgettable jazz evenings on four days instead of three and have nine performers rather than four or five as in previous years,” Marketing Director of Eastern Promotion Kakha Kandelaki told The Messenger.

The Beka Gochiashvili Trio (Georgian-US), The Brand New Heavies, the Giorgi Mikadze Jazz Trio, the project AstroGeorgia, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, the Mike Stern Band with special guest Randy Brecker, featuring Dave Weckl & Chris Minh Doky, festival headliner Hugh Masekela & Band, NiMo and Jazz Dance Party will provide four days of tasty music and non-stop entertainment till midnight. “I am extremely happy that the Black Sea Jazz Festival is very popular in Georgia and this can be proved by the fact that almost all the tickets are already sold,” Kandelaki said, adding that the company did not have any difficulty persuading the musicians to participate.

Kandelaki said that the Georgian Ministry of Culture and the Adjaran Ministry of Culture have provided much assistance to the festival, as besides it being one of the biggest musical events in the country it is very interesting from the tourism point of view as well. “This event is pretty expensive compared with the previous year's, approximately 500,000 USD has been spent on preparing everything for the festival, but thanks to serious support from sponsors and media partners [The Messenger is one of the media supporters] ticket prices have been held down. They cost GEL 50 and when buying a season ticket for all concerts there is a special discount, the cost falling to GEL 200,” Kandelaki told us.

Sophie Balavadze, PR Manager of Bank of Georgia American Express Card, the general sponsor of the Batumi Black Sea Jazz Festival, told The Messenger that the company welcomes and supports this important cultural event which is eagerly awaited each year. “We are very happy that we have the opportunity to host world class jazz gurus as well as very talented Georgian musicians and give Georgians, including our customers, the chance to attend brilliant concerts,” Balavadze told us. She also mentioned that American Express Card owners would enjoy certain privileges during the Black Sea Jazz Festival, including 20% discount on tickets.

Geocell is another of the festival's sponsors. The official host of foreign guests of the festival is Sheraton Batumi. Each concert is held at Batumi tennis courts and starts at 8 p.m.

Kandelaki also mentioned that the 13th Tbilisi Jazz Festival will take place on October 27-30, saying that as part of the festival the Blues Brothers movie's 30th anniversary will be celebrated and the legendary performers will come to Tbilisi.