Trio Raulin, Bekkas, Biayenda (FR, MA, CG)

Four years ago at Tullikamari Pakkahuone, Moroccan Majid Bekkas (b. 1957) played a traditional musical instrument covered with camel skin. This instrument had never been heard before at the Tampere Jazz Happening, and certainly not often anywhere else in Finland. That instrument was a long-necked, three-stringed and guitar-sized guembri, which is a plucked bass lute. The guembri is used in the ceremonies and spiritual music of the North African Gnawa people, who are the descendants of slaves.

In November, Majid Bekkas will return to Finland with another multinational ensemble, whose essence is once again an unconstrained combination of different styles based on improvisation. And the other musicians in the trio are once again jazz specialists, as they were in 2021. Both pianist-composer François Raulin (b. 1956) and drummer Emile Biayenda (b. 1965) have previously performed in Finland. The former performed in a one-off gig back in 1991, while the latter played on two extended tours with pianist Benoît Delbecq in 2012 and 2018. However, this performance will be the first time they have all played together in Finland.

The other trio led by Frenchman Raulin engaged in a similar fusion of musical cultures at the Jazz Happening in 2006, but at that time the African instrument used was a djembe drum. Biayenda, who was born in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and has lived in France for a long time, plays on a conventional drum set, but he is also familiar with traditional musical instruments.
Raulin, Bekkas and Biayenda appeared for the first time in Grenoble, France seven years ago, in March 2018. They have not made an album together yet.