Sandro Eristavi

Sandro Eristavi comes from Georgia, former Soviet Union. He started writing songs and performing in late seventies and after a couple of years his duo with his sister Tamara gained countrywide popularity. Their songs were frequently featured on national TV and radio shows and to this day are covered by other performers in Russia. 

Early in his musical career Sandro fell in love with blues, jazz and bossa nova. He started writing songs in English, and his playing started showing influences by such musicians as Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee, Jimmy Page and Mark Knopfler. Apart from guitar playing, listening to Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker led Sandro to developing his unique voice trumpet sound that became his trademark. 

His passion for music eventually brought Sandro to California, where he currently records and performs as a solo act as well as in duo with his sister, with repertoire covering the widest range of musical styles, from rock (Dire Straits, Steely Dan, Rolling Stones, Beatles) to blues (Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Tracy Chapman) to jazz (Luis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Michael Franks, Melody Gardot) to bossa nova to French chanson to ethnic Russian, Georgian and Romani songs, in English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian and Georgian languages. 

The albums: 

"Russian and Georgian Romantic Ballads" (2008) - A collection of old traditional Georgian and Russian-Gipsy romantic ballads, performed by Tamara and Sandro Eristavi. 

"Stratocaster Carols" (2012) - Tongue in cheek guitar arrangements of traditional Christmas carols rendered as blues, salsa, bossa nova, reggae ...and more, with nods to Jeff Beck, George Benson, Mark Knopfler ...and more. 

"Blue Sharp Minor" (2013) - Blues album of Sandro's original songs. The idea of the “Blue Sharp Minor” album was born in 1985, and some of the songs were written by Sandro around that time ("If", "A Letter to a Business Woman", "9:05PM Blues", "Upside Down Blues"). The remaining material on the album was written over the years, completed with the most recent song, "Slow Blues", dedicated to the memory of the great Alvin Lee. 

Upon its release "Blue Sharp Minor" was noticed and highly praised by Gary Wagner, the host of "Nothin' but the Blues" program on Kjazz 88.1 FM, Long Beach, CA. Two tracks from the album ("So Slow" and "A Letter to a Busines Woman") enjoyed several airings on Kjazz. 

www.sandroeristavi.com