Сергей Гурбелошвили

Sergey Gurbeloshvili (b. 1948) is a Russian-American jazz saxophonist from Turkmenistan, who immigrated to the USA in 1992. He plays on tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and clarinet. In 1967, Sergey graduated from the music college in Farghona, UzSSR and moved to Kaliningrad where he founded a Jazz Orchestra "Rhythm" in 1968. The group had tremendous success at the All-Union Jazz Festival in Sverdlovsk and won the first prize at the competition festival in Gorky (1970). A German magazine Melodie Und Rhythmus, which usually ignored the Soviet music, gave Rhythm favorable reviews. Gurbeloshvili was a member of Leonid Utesov's Jazz Orchestra in 1976-77, and after that he played with various Moscow ensembles and also joined Vladimir Vasilkov in a quartet with Valery Kutsinsky and Arkady Eskin. Sergey became famous nationwide after he played as a soloist in popular Allegro ensemble in 1980-83, impressing audiences at Soviet and foreign festivals with his virtuosity and rich sax sound. From 1983 to 1985 he had been playing in Melodia ensemble. Since 1992, Sergey Gurbeloshvili has been living in New York, USA. He plays classical, popular and jazz music with leading American musicians.