Given the ubiquity of jazz piano trios, it must be hard to sound original. But on their second album, this trio comprising Wajdi Riahi (piano, Rhodes), Basile Rahola (double bass) and Pierre Hurty (drums) do so with hypnotic performances of compositions that draw deeply from Riahi’s Belgian/Tunisian heritage.
The trio was formed in Brussels in 2020, Riahi having previously played and recorded with Rahola and Hurty in different projects. Their first album, Mhamdeya (2022), was largely European chamber jazz that touched only briefly on Tunisia, notably through Tunisian-inflected singing on the eponymous track “Mhamdeya” and oud player Akram Ben Romdhane joining on “Hymn to Fazzeni”. On Essia, the Tunisian elements are more apparent, not only compositionally but also because several pieces add voice and chkachek.
The chkachek is a handheld metallic percussion instrument with a perfect onomatopoeic name (say it out loud and you’ll hear its sound). It’s used in stambeli rituals, where music is used to induce a trancelike state to draw a benign spirit into the body, to appease the spirit and heal its human host. Tunisian independence in the 1950s led to the banning of rituals, and until recently stambeli was at risk of extinction. But it’s inspired a new generation of musicians, including French and Tunisian electronic dance bands attracted by its trancelike rhythms. Riahi carries this spirit into the jazz realm, especially (and not surprisingly, given the track’s name) on “Hymn to Stambeli” – one of the album’s longer tracks, whose emotional arc swells in rhythmic intensity. There’s a similar large emotional arc on tracks such as “Inel Blues”, which begins with sombre, deep piano notes that develop into European chamber jazz of growing intensity before melting back to quietude; and “Road to”, full of complex rhythms and contrasts.
Chant-like singing on several tracks reinforces the incantatory sense of stambeli, but rituals and European jazz are by no means the only inspirations on this deeply personal album. “Opening” represents the route that Riahi took each day from the age of six to reach the conservatory in the old city of Tunis, and begins with muffled piano overlaying what sounds like a field recording of a busy street or marketplace, full of lively chatter, indistinct shuffling and what could be noises from hammers and chisels, the piano building in clarity and volume only to drop away to leave the sound of the crowd dispersing. “Agree, Hypocrite or Leave” was inspired by a quote from Ibn Khaldoun, a philosopher and sociologist whose statue Riahi used to admire. And “Nawres” and “Essia” are named after his sister and mother respectively, both tracks gentle and intimate with whistling accompanying the piano, two miniature portraits in sound. The latter includes Rhodes as well as acoustic piano, an additional colour that’s also used effectively on the rhythmically strong “Hroub”.
Overall, it’s a beautiful album that takes the modern jazz piano trio in an exciting new direction. And given that they only started in 2020 and have already recorded two exceptional albums, they’re a trio worth watching as well as listening to.
