Wajdi Riahi Trio

The trio was formed in Brussels, in 2020, but the three musicians wouldn’t all tell the same story. It’d be like asking a child how long they’ve known their parents.
 Wajdi and Basile met for the first time in Tunisia. They recorded two albums together with the Baz Trio: “Live at Jamboree” (Jamboree live) and “L’homme Bleu” (Fresh Sound New Talent). Dummer Pierry Hurty made his way into Wajdi’s life, and these two began playing together on various projects, including “Moments” (Basile’s latest album) and a duo project, “R I H A R T Y”. They have been inseparable ever since. The strong bonds between these three young musicians translates to a solid, cohesive dynamic in their playing.
 Following a proposal from Fresh Sounds Records, Wajdi decided to write a new repertory for the trio. The new music is rhythmically, melodically, and harmonically varied, and each song tells a true story from Wajdi’s life, and that honesty comes through in the trio’s playing.

Mhamdeya is the name of the Tunisian city where Wajdi grew up. He left when he was 20 and moved to Brussels. But the city is more than just a hometown to him : it’s a strange mix of pleasure and sadness, a sensation Wajdi tries to bring across in his composition entitled “Mhamdeya” (track 9). Perhaps it’s a sense of nostalgia for the sound of the radio his mother would play every morning, or the smell of the coffee she used to make, or, perhaps, the sound of the first piano Wajdi began playing in that small room in the conservatory when he was six years old. It’s more than nostalgia, though. “When I play with Basile and Pierre I don’t want to share only music. I want them to enter into my life and see what it looks like. That’s why I invited them to my home, to my Mhamdeya.” Clearly, then, Mhamdeya is not simply a place. It is a source of nourishment for Wajdi’s music, and it has become even more than this with Pierre and Basile, because they, too, have their own “Mhamdeyas.”