Loading details…
Artist
Evgeny Pobozhiy
12+ albums
jazz fusion
about
Evgeny Pobozhiy, a virtuoso guitarist with a busy profile on the Moscow jazz scene, has won the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Guitar Competition. As winner of the prize, one of the most prestigious of its kind, he'll receive $30,000 in scholarship funds and a recording contract with the Concord Music Group. He also joins an honor roll of past winners including pianist Jacky Terrasson, saxophonists Joshua Redman and Melissa Aldana, and singers Jazzmeia Horn and Cécile McLorin Salvant. The competition finals were held Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, as part of a gala concert. Max Light, of Bethesda, Md., took second prize, and Cecil Alexander, of Muskegon, Mich., came in third. Each of the three finalists played two songs during the concert, which also included a performance by the Institute's chairman, pianist Herbie Hancock, and the presentation of its Maria Fisher Founder's Award to trumpeter-composer-educator Terence Blanchard. Pobozhiy, who will turn 31 later this month, secured his win with "502 Blues," composed by Jimmy Rowles and best known for a version recorded in 1966 by Wayne Shorter; and "Falling Grace," a Steve Swallow composition also recorded that year. The competitors were judged by a panel of notable jazz guitarists from across the stylistic spectrum: Stanley Jordan, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Russell Malone, Lee Ritenour, Lionel Loueke and Chico Pinheiro. Half had previously served on the same jury, when first pr
