Skopje, 5 September 2024 (MIA) — The National Jazz Orchestra will perform a concert titled "A Letter to Ray" in Bitola featuring Martin Gjakonovski Shpato as soloist on double bass. 

Dzhijan Emin will conduct the orchestra in performing the tribute concert to Ray Brown, one of the most influential double bass players of all time. It is their "letter of gratitude" for his leaving an indelible mark on jazz music, organizers said in a press release.

Martin Gjakonovski Shpato (b. 1970, Skopje) is a Macedonian double bass player and composer based in Germany. He comes from a musical family; his mother was a jazz singer, and his father, Dragan Gjakonovski Shpato, is a prominent Macedonian composer, conductor and musical arranger, and the founder of the Big Band of Radio Skopje.

Gjakonovski started learning the violin at the age of six and moved on to double bass at the age 14. He soon formed his own band, the Shpato Trio. 

In 1991, he enrolled at the Cologne University of Music. He has performed at numerous European festivals, such as in Zagreb, Brussels, Bilbao, Krakow and Leverkusen, alongside musicians including Paul Kuhn, Lynne Arriale, Olivia Trummer, Paul Shigihara, Nicolas Simion, Anders Berg Krantz, Omer Klein, the Frankfurt Jazz Big Band, Roman Schwaller, Andy Middleton, Tony Lakatos, Charlie Mariano and others. 

He has recorded more than eighty jazz and world music CDs, collaborating with Dusko Goykovich, Paul Kuhn, Nicolas Simion, Antonio Faraò, Bob Berg, Michael Sagmeister, Anke Helfrich, Torsten Goods, Ferenc Snétberger, Dejan Terzic European Assembly, Claudius Valk Trio, Ratko Zjaca, Simone Zanchini, and Adam Nussbaum. mr/