DOM Cultural Center

07 June 2006

The Shin formed in Germany in 1998, where Zaza Miminoshvili, Zurab Gagnidze, and Mamuka Gaganidze have been since 1994. In their Georgian homeland, these musicians are already living legends and belong to the artistic elite of the country: composers and performers Zaza Miminoshvili and Zurab Gagnidze wrote music for Robert Sturua’s productions for the state theater in Tbilisi, and also for many motion pictures. They were prize winners at numerous jazz festivals. In 1992, Zaza Miminoshvili was named the best acoustic guitarist in Georgia. Mamuka Gaganidze records soundtracks with with the famous Georgian composer Giya Kancheli. Zurab Gagnidze worked with Randy Brecker, Chaka Khan, Jatinder Thakur, Shankar Lal, Okay Temiz, Giora Feidman, and many others. These days the group tours, records, and participates in numerous projects around the world. Their show with Randy Brecker at the 9th international jazz festival in Tbilisi in July 2005 was the highlight of the festival, at the 8th jazz festival «Jazz in the Hermitage Gardens» in Moscow The Shin received the audience’s first choice award.

In Georgian Shin means the road home. Even though each of us has our own personal road home and our own personal home, the music of The Shin has the amazing ability of leading everyone ”home”. The music leads you to somewhere you know you’ve been before, where the windows are fogged over from the rain and it smells of kitchen smells, where you hear voices and, even though you might not understand what they are saying, you understand everything anyway. This music leads you home, no matter how far away it is.

The Shin’s music brilliantly unites Georgian folk tunes with jazz, the unique vocal technique of Georgia with scat, elements of flamenco, ancient eastern and modern western music.
The Shin’s „instrumental theatre“ replete with cultural undertones. The music oscillates between pure life-joy (with lots of humorous asides) and genuine solemnity. The Shin generates rhythmic-harmonic extensions, seasoned with exotic sound-spices from Europe’s Southeastern frontier to the Orient. The group’s guruli-type polyphonies merge pagan ancestry with Byzantine celebration, under an all-inclusive, sui generis type of swing, whilst the specific sound of the Georgian language is adapted to jazz’s scat tradition. It is a masterly performance, displaying virtuosity, explosive temperament and sparkling humor of the musicians, as well as their remarkable emotional interplay and the special rapport that the musicians share with their listeners, literally enthralling the audience from their very first notes. This overwhelming acoustic-visual experience represents a highly original contribution to the development of music in the beginning of the 21st century.

Festivals and Concerts
• International Jazz Festival Jazzkaar, Tallinn; Estonia, April 2006
• International Jazz Festival Jazzkaar, Tallinn; Estonia, April 2006
• 8 International Jazz Festival "Jazz at Hermitage garden", Moscow, August 2005 (prize of audience sympathies)
• 9 International Jazz Festival, Tbilisi, July 2005 (The Shin featuring Randy Brecker)
• Jazz Across the Border, Berlin;
• Uhuru World Music Festival, Solothurn;
• Black Sea Art Project, Istanbul;
• International Guitar Festival, Tbilisi;
• House of Blues, Chicago;
• Fabrik, Hamburg;
• Jazzkeller Frankfurt;
• Internationale Sommerfestspiele Schloß Auerbach;
• Jazz Spektakel Wuppertal;
• Bach-Woche Heidelberg;
• Hessen Jazz Idstein;
• Gostenhofer Jazztage, Nürnberg;
• Bayerischer Hof, München;
• Frankfurter Hof, Mainz;
• Karlstor Bahnhof, Heidelberg;
• Brussels; Salzburg; Antwerp; Portland; Seattle; San Francisco; Orange County, Pasadena; San Diego; New York; Washington D.C, Moscow

Played with
Randy Brecker, Giora Feidman, Chaka Khan, Okay Temiz, Claus Boesser-Ferrari, Jatinda Thakur, Shankar Lal, Fill Guy, Rajesh Mehta, Milt Hinton, David Murray, Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, Ernie Watts, Elliot Sharpe, Joe Lovano, Kimmi Knepper, Richard Davis, Jaki Byard

Discography
• ManyTimer (World-Jazz), BBB Music Ltd., 2004, The Shin, Büttelborn, Germany (In the beginning of May2005 nominated a best CD of the week by the Blue Rhythm magazine.)
• Ibero-Caucasian Style (Jazz-World), CD & CD ROM, 2003, The Shin, Heilbronn, Germany.
• The Shin (Jazz-Rock) F&C Records, 1995, Jazz Group ADIO, Heilbronn, Germany.
• Tseruli (acoustic guitar music), Acoustic Music Records, 1999, The Shin, Osnabrück, Germany.
• The Legend of Tamar (Broadway Show), Erisioni Productions, 2000, Seatle, USA.
• Lazutlar (Black Sea Style), Kalan Müzik, Yapim, 2000, Fuat Saka, Istanbul, Turkey.

Press Reports

“…With all due respect to the other participants, it was precisely these musicians who were to become the stars of show on that evening. In contrast to the slightly monotonous mainstream-jazz, the Georgian ethno-jazz-rock was simply magnificent. The combination of folk-melodies, at times undisguised rock-riffs, a great percussion, vocals that were crazily beautiful, true Georgian charm and a sense of humor made them the audience’s favourite band. It was The Shin, which reaped the loudest applause and most “BRAVO-s!!!” Just to foreclose, at the end of the festival the group won the official prize of being the audience’s favourite band.
Festival “Jazz at the Hermitage garden” Sergey Bondarkov, “Polniy Jazz”, NN 30-31, 2005

“Just try to imagine a brilliant dialogue between an acoustic guitar à-la flamenco and a fretless bass, a mischievous percussion and a supersonic guruli-singing that would make Scatman John jealous, or Indian masters of playing the tabla... All the compositions performed by The Shin have this unique quality of being immediately commemorated – right away, you start to hum along and your feet begin to tap of their own accord, your hands clap and it simply becomes hard to remain seated”.
Pavel Peresvetov, for the magazine «Vash Dosug», January 2005

“George Benson, John Scofield, Randy Brecker and "The Shin" present the jazz-constellation and prove the existence of Wonders. The concert sparkled with the musicians’ magnificent solo “pa-s”… Brilliant dialogues between guitar, trumpet, bass, drums ad vocals melted together thus creating a feeling of a real show… The musicians’ “dialogues” and the solo-“explosions” combined together made dynamic emotional music – music that is created and performed by “The Shin”. This music has many fans; one could feel that by looking at the overflowing concert hall, at the lively reactions of the spectators as well as at the wild ovations”
«Resonance» 08.07.05, Tbilisi

“They were the real sensation of the Wiesloch Guitar Festival with their wit and virtuoso world encompassing and at the same time Georgian rooted Fusion-Jazz… Georgian folk tunes, brilliantly mixed with Jazz and Samba, virtuoso, humorous, mature and yet playful performed by The Shin, by far the most exciting and exquisite music of the festival…brought the house down and dumbfounded the critics”.
„Akustik Gitarre“, 6/99, Michael Lohr

„In a time of commercialization The Shin gave meaning and definition back to music: music with stirred people’s hearts, music with soul”
„Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung“ 31.03.1998
„…an indescribable adventure trip between the Black Sea and the Missisippi...exceptionally funky, but at the same time meditative, on the one hand excitingly modern, but at the same time meditative, somehow fine and exotic yet wholly intimate. Rating: enchantingly creative!”
Akustik Gitarre, 01/00, Michael Lohr