Beka Gochiashvili Trio, Ronnie Scott’s

We last saw 19-year-old Georgian piano prodigy Beka Gochiashvili at the EFG London Jazz Festival launch party in November, when he opened the show with bassist Stanley Clarke and his band of young virtuosi. Now he’s back at Ronnie Scott’s to lead his own disconcertingly youthful trio for this, their London debut.
Gochiashvili grew up in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and began playing the piano when he was just two and half. By the age of 10 he was a regular feature in jazz clubs around the city and in 2008 he caught the eye of visiting musicians Lenny White (former drummer with Chick Corea) and bassist Victor Bailey. He’s since been named the youngest ever winner of the Solo Jazz Piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival and been championed by a host of famous names, including Corea himself. He won a place at New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music in 2008 and just four years later released his startling debut, which pays tribute to Corea and Keith Jarrett, plus Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, and features guest appearances from Clarke, White, Bailey and bassist John Patitucci, among others.
While at Juilliard he met drummer Jimmy Macbride and bassist Marty Jaffe, both rising stars in their own right. The result is a trio capable of frightening virtuosity and great maturity, full of youthful exuberance but free from the gratuitous flash that blights so many young jazz groups. Go and see them now before their ticket price doubles.