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Tunisian born pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif
proved to be a talented musician at an early age. When he was five
years old, he was playing on piano the Arabic melodies that he heard
on the local radio by ear.
As he grew up, his love for music never left him and He discovered
other styles of music which made a significant impact on his personal
musical tastes later. Wajdi Cherif discovered jazz by watching live
videos of pianists like Chick COREA, Thelonious MONK, Bill EVANS.
This influenced deeply his musical interests and he decided to study
jazz extensively by himself.
In 1999, Wajdi Cherif played an opening for a jazz giant, Archie
SHEPP during the "Jazz in Tunis" festival. He met the same year
an important figure of jazz piano in France, pianist Bernard MAURY
who was to become his harmony teacher. His later meetings with great
jazz pianists such as Kenny WERNER, Chick Corea and Ahmad JAMAL
shaped significantly his vision of music and of playing piano in
general. His music is open on the different trends of jazz, European
classical music and Arabic melodies in which he was immersed since
his early childhood and which influenced his compositions significantly.
All this resulted in the creation of a fresh new jazz sound, a mixture
of jazz and Arabic music. Wajdi Cherif distinctive performances
as a leader received critical acclaim on the international stage
in many renowned venues as the Tabarka Jazz Festival where he led
many jazz workshops and master classes with prestigious guest artists
such as Paco SERY, Al Di MEOLA, Freddy RAVEL (pianist, Al Jarreau)
and others.. Other recent performances include the Institut Du Monde
Arabe IMA (Paris), Tanjazz Festival (Morroco), La Villette Jazz
Festival (Paris), Couleurs Jazz (Tunisia) etc.
Wajdi Cherif recorded his first album "Phrygian Istikhbar" in Paris
in 2003 with Diégo Imbert on acoustic bass, Jeff Boudreau on drums
and Habib Samandi on Arabic percussion. "Phrygian Istkhbar" was
finalist in the Indie Acoustic Awards in the USA in 2004 and got
very good reviews in many publications worldwide.
Three years later, Wajdi Cherif issued his second album entitled
"Jasmine". This CD shows the maturity and excellent artistic standard
that pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif has reached so far. "Pochade
", the first track of "Jasmine received a honorable mention in The
International Songwriting Competition 2005 (USA) in the instrumental
category (Judges include Sonny Rollins ,John Scofield, Steve Vai,
Tom Waits...).
Jasmine also received the IAP's (Inidie Acoustic Project) "Best
CDs of 2005" Awards and was described as one of the best acoustic
album of 2005 by the judges.
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