International Jazz Day

WAJDI RIAHI TRIO "ESSIA"/ Jazz Tour FELIX ZURSTRASSEN NOVA "ELUSIVE

In collaboration with Les Lundis d'Hortense, la Jazz Station and Musiq'3

To mark International Jazz Day, two up-and-coming Belgian bands and a new album will be playing at the Marni, in collaboration with the Jazz Station and Les Lundis d'Hortense. The double concert will be broadcast live on Belgium's jazziest radio station, Musiq'3.

ESSIA

After a debut album that won over both the press and the public, Wajdi Riahi's trio is back with a new repertoire. While oriental nuances may still shine through, the jazz here is assertive and contemporary. Of course, it's the mix that gives this trio all its flavour and uniqueness. The complicity between the double bass player (Basile Rahola), the drummer (Pierre Hurty) and the pianist is obvious. With them, you no longer know which side of the Atlantic you're on, or which shores of Northern Europe or the Orient you're intoxicating with iodine or sweet perfumes. With them, the party can explode at any moment. The music becomes frenetic, the pianist's fingers racing across the keyboard, percussion and double bass imposing a unique groove... then it calms down. It catches its breath, breathes and leaves us with stars in our ears. If journeys are full of emotions, jazz is also full of them.

"Riahi's clean touch, dense phrasing, musicality and sense of suspense are reminiscent of The Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau and even E.S.T. As for the pianist's modulated vocals, they reinforce the oriental character of the music". Jazz à Babord, FR, 2023.

"Wajdi shows great mastery of space and sound, distributing the roles within his trio by defining the right proportions between the individual and the collective". Jazz Magazine, 2022.

ELUSIVE

NOVA is an international quintet led by Belgian bassist Félix Zurstrassen. In many ways, he is an artist in a class of his own. He combines with rare virtuosity the extreme demands of his music with the way he offers it to the public: as a limpid, collective and generous adventure.

He places the highest standards first and foremost in the way he brings together exceptional musicians who, without him, might never have met.