(photo by Adrian Mueller/courtesy of Fabrik Studios,NYC)

George Mel has worked as a freelance drummer and percussionist in New York City since late 2000. While in New York, he has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall; Blue Note, NYC; Zinc Bar, NYC; 55Bar, NYC; The Bitter End, NYC; Smalls, NYC; The Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA; among others. Over the years George has played with such artists as Duane Eubanks (trumpet), Bob Rodriguez (piano), Mark Helias (bass), Leni Stern (guitar/voice), Valeri Ponomarev (trumpet), Avishai E.Cohen (trumpet), Emilio Solla (piano), Jesse Murphy (bass "Brazilian Girls"), John Ellis (sax), Raul Midon (guitar/voice), Wayne Escoffery (sax), Freddie Bryant (guitar), Edsel Gomez (piano), Nilson Matta (bass), Lionel Loueke (guitar), Craig Handy (sax), Badal Roy (tablas w/Miles Davis),Sergio Brandao(bass),Victor Prieto(accordeon), jazz clarinet legend Perry Robinson,Brazilian piano legend Dom Salvador, and countless other world class musicians.

Born George 'Gia' Melikishvili, George Mel is a native of Tbilisi, Georgia, where at a young age he taught himself to play the drums. Western music was seen by the communist establishment as subversive and George kept music as a hobby, quietly forming underground rockband Limousine with other forward thinking locals. The subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union brought an instant dissolution of the strict prohibitions on western culture and virtually overnight, Limousine found itself catapulted to national recognition. Limousine instantly graduated from the basement of a local university building to playing large concert halls, major rock festivals, and appearing on national radio and television. The fame was short-lived, though, as Georgia erupted into civil war shortly thereafter, pushing George to emmigrate to Holland, where he performed for several years as sideman to former EMI recording artist Wendy Sheridan and Walter Trout of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers among others. Years into life as a professional musician, George finally received his first formal musical education after being offered a scholarship to the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA , going on to become the first Georgian-born musician to graduate with a degree in Jazz Performance in the United States. Upon graduating, George relocated to New York City, quickly establishing himself as an in-demand drummer. George released his first album as a leader and composer with 2004's Winding Road , which features six original compositions that reflect George’s deeply personal view that music should exist as a human expression of beauty and emotion through sound, rather than simply serving market-defined labels and conventional definitions, and Jazz in particular, as an improv and interplay on a winding road of unknowns that requires an open mind from both the artist and the listener.