International Jazz Day : Wajdi Riahi Trio + Félix Zurstrassen NOVA "Elusive"

Wajdi Riahi Trio

After a first album that seduced press and audience alike, Wajdi Riahi’s trio comes back with this new repertoire. Essia, the new album from Wajdi Riahi Trio, tells of a journey between the pianist’s two horizons : Tunis and Brussels. Stambeli and Gnawa music are an integral part of the album. The organic architecture of these (North) African rhythms blends with the complexity of jazz.
Complicity between the bass player (Basile Rahola), the drummer (Pierre Hurty) and the pianist is evident. With them, you don’t know anymore on which side of the Atlantic you stand, which Northern European or Middle Eastern shore you’ve washed up on. Your nostrils filled with iodine, and sweet perfumes, you’ll feel like there’s a party about to erupt at any moment. The music takes over. The pianist’s fingers race down the keys, drums and bass impose a unique groove... and then it calms down. It catches its breath, oxygen flows again and stars ring in our ears. If traveling fills us with emotions, then so does jazz.

Félix Zurstrassen NOVA "Elusive"

NNOVA is an international quintet led by Belgian bassist Félix Zurstrassen. He is, in many ways, an artist apart. His rare virtuosity combines the extreme demands that his music requires and the way in which he offers it to the public : like a clear, collective and generous adventure.
His demanding approach can mostly be seen in the way he gathers around him exceptional musicians who, without him, might never have crossed paths. Alongside him, we find : the Franco-Brazilian guitarist Nelson Veras, the Dutch alto saxophonist Ben van Gelder, the Belgian drummer Antoine Pierre and for the first time in Belgium, one of the most promising of his generation the young English pianist Noah Stoneman, a former student of English pianist/organist Kit Downes. Located at the crossroads of modern and contemporary jazz, this quintet works to create lyrical, innovative music anchored with nuance and emotion in the present moment.