The Shin’s long and winding road

Emanating from Georgia, back in the USSR, this Beatles-influenced trio has been forging an eclectic path.

By BARRY DAVIS
ZURAB GAGNIDZE 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
ZURAB GAGNIDZE 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Since its inception 11 years ago, the International Oud Festival has grown in terms of duration and artistic spread. The first event lasted all of two days, while this year it extends more than two weeks. Naturally, most of the acts are based on Arabic music or have some connection with the genre. This year’s festival closing show may not have much to do with music from the Middle East, but it incorporates numerous ethnic strands and adds significant breadth to the Confederation House-devised program.
The kernel of The Shin originates from Georgia (as in the former Soviet Republic) and is based on a trio nucleus of Zaza Miminoshvili on guitar and panduri (traditional Georgian three-string plucked instrument); Zurab Gagnidze on bass and vocals; and Mamuka Gagnidze on vocals and percussion. The line-up for the Jerusalem show on Thursday (Jerusalem Theater, 9 p.m.) will include five additional members, including two who double as instrumentalists and dancers.
Zurab Gagnidze makes no apologies for sticking to unadulterated Georgian ethnic music, even though he was brought up on a captivating diet of Georgian vocal music.
“My grandmother had two sisters, and all three of them sang wonderful polyphonic west Georgian folk music,” recalls 52-year-old Gagnidze.
“I still have some tapes of my grandmother singing, and sometimes in our concerts we include songs that she sang.”
However, there won’t be any of Grandma’s numbers in the forthcoming Jerusalem gig, which will be based on the group’s latest release, EgAri, which means “That’s it.”
“We called it that because the album is exactly what we wanted to record,” explains Gagnidze.
“We were so happy that we managed to get this mix together. Everything we heard and have learned and love is in this CD. If I am an artist, then I express exactly what I am in my music.”
Judging by EgAri, Gagnidze and his cohorts have imbibed an eclectic spread of genres in their lives.
The 10 tracks on the CD include rhythms, melodies and motifs from a wide range of areas that include Georgian folk, classical music, rock, pop, jazz, blues, funk and even Celtic music. With that in mind, it is curious that the band’s name in Georgian means “the road home.” But then again, Gagnidze and the rest of the band appear to feel very much at home everywhere they travel musically.
AFTER HIS initial early childhood Georgian musical nutrition, Gagnidze began to discover artistic worlds beyond the confines of his Soviet-governed country.
“When I was in eighth grade, I became interested in The Beatles and still am. The Beatles are very important for all people and musicians, all over the road.”
Considering the strict controls the USSR exacted over all its puppet states, with regard to what was acceptable behavior and cultural practices, it is amazing that Gagnidze and his pals managed to get their hands on Beatles records at all, albeit several years after the music was originally released in Britain.
“Georgia was always more democratic and more open than the rest of the USSR,” explains the bass player. For example, you could easily get hold of vodka in Georgia when it was not available at all in the USSR. And we used to listen to the weekly jazz show on the Voice of America radio station. We waited all week to listen to the program.”
Gagnidze also believes there were some advantages to the artistic deprivation with which he grew up.
“Back then, the lucky few who managed to get permission to go abroad always came back with great LPs, which we would all tape. These days, you go into a record store in Germany and there is so much crap there.”
From The Beatles Gagnidze explored jazz rock acts such as Chicago, and then got into jazz fusion and the work of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.
“My favorite band at the time was Earth Wind and Fire. I loved soul but also polyphonic Georgian music, and that wide mix very much comes into what we do today in The Shin.”
Over the years, The Shin has mixed it with jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker and our very own klezmer king, clarinetist Giora Feidman.
“We were appearing at the same festival as Giora in Hamburg a few years back, and we played some of our Georgian tunes and some klezmer numbers with him. It was great fun, and he is a wonderful musician.”
Gagnidze adds that The Shin recently started getting into music from this part of the world.
“We just did a concert with Georgian, Argentinean and Algerian music. We hit on the idea spontaneously, and we’re going to record an album of it.”
There won’t be any Arabic music in the band’s Oud Festival show, but given the locale, no doubt some Middle Eastern flavor will filter through.