Macondo Trio ft. Wajdi Riahi

Exuberant afro-jazz, propelled by groove and freedom The music of Macondo Trio lifts you loose from time and space. Their sounds begin as a soft warmth under the skin, slowly bubble up, and drive you toward the boiling point. Macondo weaves modal and improvised jazz with African rhythms and melodies from childhood, a mixture that brings together the personal stories of the three musicians. They feed each other musically and spiritually, and create enchanting jazz that begs to be shared. The adventure of Macondo Trio began when the Beninese drummer Angelo Moustapha and the Belgian saxophonist Sylvain Debaisieux met each other. During residencies in Belgium and Benin, a shared rhythmic language grew in which improvisation and curious sound exploration are central. With the arrival of the Italian bassist Federico Stocchi, the trio received its deep, organic foundation. Their debut EP Macondo, released in December 2022 on Off Records, is the tangible result of pure musical alchemy: energy, groove, and freedom in one breath. On their JazzLab tour, they are accompanied by none other than the Brussels pianist Wajdi Riahi. A true comet within Belgian jazz who made a big splash both at the side of, among others, Stéphane Galland (The Rhythm Hunters), and on JazzLab tour with his own Wajdi Riahi Trio in the autumn of 2024. With his Tunisian roots and poetic playing, Riahi adds a narrative, Mediterranean glow to the Macondo Trio. The new album Morayò, which was released in March 2025 on the Dutch label Challenge Records, was enthusiastically received during the release tour in Wallonia and Brussels.