American jazz musician punctuates Georgian New Year
By Mariam Mchedlidze
Thursday, January 9
TBC status clients of Georgia had the great pleasure to receive a New Year’s congrats from Maceo Parker-the famous American jazz musician rated as the best saxophonist alive. His performance was held at the Tbilisi Events Hall January 1-2 in front of large audiences. Parker says he feels like it is his duty as a musician to visit as many countries as possible.
Parker and his band offered non-traditional jazz music mixed with mellow jazz and the grooves of hip-hop. He adroitly navigated between James Brown's 1960s soul and George Clinton's 1970s freaky funk.
Parker has worked with musicians that include Ray Charles, Ani Difranco, James Taylor, De La Soul, Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Though they have inspired Maceo’s creative work, he has a special unique way of developing jazz music and staying respectful to traditions at the same time.
Although he had already been acknowledged as a master in his sphere, Parker has always dreamt of working with a big band. This dream was fulfilled in 2007 when Parker started working with Grammy Award winners the WDR Big Band from Cologne Germany. Later, they released their first album Roots and Grooves.
With his band Parker made jazz music to be reborn with their unique sounds and style of playing their instruments. They all make the audience feel like a member of the jazz group. A young boy even started to dance on the stage while Parker was playing one of his famous songs. The “little star” got the saxophonist’s sunglasses as a memorable gift.
The general sponsor of the event was TBC bank, which is famous for organizing cultural events. This project is a part of the Tbilisi Jazz Festival, which has been conducted since 1978 by Eastern Promotion, which is dedicated to promoting world-class music in the region as well as promoting the best Georgian music abroad.
Today, Eastern Promotion is the largest producers of jazz festivals in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Such kinds of events are planned in the future too. The next cultural event planned for the Tbilisi Jazz Festival is Joe Locke Group’s performance featuring vocalist Kenny Washington. The performance will be held on the 14th of February.
Photos from TBC Bank’s Facebook page
