Giorgi Mikadze – ‘Georgian Microjamz’ (2020)

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I may be a little biased here, but microtonal music is so much fun to listen to once you get over the initial shock to ears trained for Western music and its strict, pure intonation policy of note intervals. It’s the sound of rebellion against the norm, especially when applied to music that is otherwise purely Western. We’ve heard fretless guitar extraordinaire David ‘Fuze’ Fiuczynski do this on a regular basis, and Giorgi Mikadze is applying similar kinds of music innovations using microtonal keyboards with the soon-to-be-released Georgian Microjamz.

But Georgian Microjamz isn’t ‘just’ another microtonal jazz record. Mikadze, you see, is from the Republic of Georgia, that culturally rich ex-Soviet republic nestled in the Caucasus Mountains. He started out in classical, caught the jazz bug, attended Berklee with Fiuczynski and later got into RnB, fusion, hip-hop and other contemporary forms of music. Lately though, he’s returning his focus back toward the music of his native country, the traditional folk music of Georgia. What’s more, he’s doing it with a twist: working the microtonalities inherent in that kind of music into contemporary jazz.



This is rather ambitious for someone’s first record but given Mikadze’s background, he’s more than ready. He’s also very serious about it; in addition to playing microtonal keyboards for this project, he brought in Fiuczynski and his fretless guitar, a fretless bass player in Panagiotis Andreou and Sean Wright on drums.

There’s something very ancient and very modern about songs like “Dumba Damba” (video above), found in the notes plays versus the rhythms and timbres of the instruments used. It’s like the Headhunters playing medieval Georgian tunes, and Andreou brings the big chops for his bass spotlight. “Elesa” demonstrates how the polyphonic contours of Georgian music serves the sophisticated structure of rock-jazz when it’s done right. “Kartios Blues” is, yes, a blues, if you train your ears hard enough, decorated heavily in the exotic tones of impure intonation. Both Mikadze and Fiuczynski are applying blues phrasing to microtone notes in their solos, and it’s pretty cool to hear it. The skittish “Maglonia” is already a tight integration between tricky rhythm and harmony, and the microtones serve to open up yet another dimension.

Voices plays a big part in Georgian music, as the Orthodox Christian church featured only vocal music in its services. Mikadze recognizes that in his own music. In fact, on the very first track, we are greeted with rich, powerful chants before hearing a single instrument. On the other end of the record is “Tseruli,” which features Ensemble Basiani, Georgian choral group that normally sings a capella. But Mikadze managed to lay their voices over his electric jazz fusion and make it fit. If the singers seemed even more at home singing along to “Lazhghvash,” that’s because it’s a traditional Georgian folk song given a contemporary arrangement by Mikadze.

Nana Valishvili’s singing on “Moaning” is the most spellbinding vocal turn of all. She belts out in the local language a dirge for the Georgian war dead of the 2008 Russian invasion over Fuze’s fuzzy, psychedelic guitar and Wright’s resolute rock sway. Later, Mikadze expresses the same sorrowful sentiment over a Moog.

Giorgi Mikadze tells a lot about himself in his first record as a leader. He shows us his mastery a lot of complex music forms and he’s very proud of where he’s from. Quite honestly, he’s got plenty to be proud of.

Georgian Microjamz is slated for release February 28, 2020 by London-based Rare Noise Records.


S. Victor Aaron