bio

If you walk down the streets of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, the city where Ilusha Tsinadze was born, you’re likely to hear one of his band’s recordings blaring from a taxi cab, a youngster’s cell phone, or over the old speakers at the bazaar. Step into New York City, where Ilusha lives now, and you can catch one of his sold-out performances at jazz clubs and folk music venues alike, where enthusiastic folkies, jazz-heads, and immigrants gather to hear his take on Georgia’s ancient folk traditions. His band’s recently released debut album, Deda Ena/Mother Tongue, brings mountain songs and village dances into conversation with the global city, featuring blazing solos, African and Brazilian percussion, and jazz improvisation.

Ilusha Tsinadze came to the U.S. with his family at the age of eight, and wouldn’t return to Georgia until 2005, by which time he had already earned a bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar. There, he rediscovered his musical heritage, lost to him for so many years. It became a bridge between cultures and lands, between his family in Georgia and himself.

Ilusha was inspired to share this music with an audience in the U.S. But rather than combing the diverse New York City music scene for Georgian traditional musicians he opted to call on some of his accomplished friends, creative musicians recognized for their talents in jazz, American roots music, and other music traditions from around the world. Deda Ena, or “Mother Tongue”, named after the primer that all young Georgians use when they first learn to read and write, is the product of this inspiration.

Since the release of the album in May 2011, Ilusha has performed the repertoire on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. His festival and TV performances in Georgia have won him a nation worth of fans. Ilusha hopes his project will further connect him to other members of the Georgian Diaspora through song and wishes to share this beautiful and little-known musical tradition with Americans, through the eyes of an immigrant with one foot in New York City and the other in a little nation on the Black Sea.