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Giorgi Mikadze Trio: Same Garden

By John Chacona
February 22, 2024
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Your assignment for today is to name the composer of "Same Garden" (no fair looking!). Could it be a Jerome Kern deep cut? A rarity by Cole Porter? Wait! Victor Young, right?

All good guesses for this tuneful, 32-bar AABA line, but the prize goes to the sharp-eared listener who named Shota Milorava, a composer of film scores from the Republic of Georgia.

Crazy, eh? Not if you know that Giorgi Mikadze, on whose recording Face to Face: The Georgian Songbook Vol. 1 (PeeWee!, 2024) the song appears, also hails from the Caucasian republic best known for its Olympic wrestlers and stirring, he-man male choruses.

"Same Garden" might be the least folkloric of the record's ten songs, and also the most jazz-ish. Georgia is known for powerhouse concert pianists and Mikadze upholds the national traditions of velocity and sonority, but his Parisian rhythm team of bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Raphaël Pannier concede nothing in the chops department.

So much so that if you watch the video until the end, you'll hear the pianist's stupefied reaction to their virtuosity. It's NSFW, but don't worry about the kids. Mikadze's Georglish accent is nearly impenetrable.

Contact John Chacona on All About Jazz.
John Chacona is a freelance journalist, content writer and producer in Cleveland.

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About Giorgi Mikadze

Instrument: Piano

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