eJazzNews Archive

Wajdi Cherif: Phrygian Istikhbar, Reviewed by John Kelman (2003)

Originally published on eJazzNews · · By John Kelman · CD Reviews

On September 23, 2003, eJazzNews published John Kelman’s review of Phrygian Istikhbar, the debut recording of the Tunisian pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif, issued in 2003 on the WECH Records label. Kelman heard it as a piano trio record first and a world music record second. Cherif went on to make two more studio albums and, in December 2025, released a live EP recorded in New York.

What the review said

Kelman opened by placing the record against other jazz built on Middle Eastern music, naming the oud players Anouar Brahem and Rabih Abou-Khalil, whose work he said tended to keep traditional instruments and forms intact. Cherif, in his view, kept the flavor of Tunisian music but leaned on the jazz tradition instead, which gave the music a different slant.

He described the format as essentially a piano trio, with Habib Samandi adding derbouka and bendir on some tracks. Tunisian folk phrasing, rhythm and harmony served as springboards for improvisation, and Kelman heard echoes of Chick Corea, Bill Evans and Michel Petrucciani while finding that Cherif was developing his own voice. He pointed to the solo piano piece “Tunis by Night,” the bendir-driven title track, the lightly swinging “Waiting for Paris,” and an ostinato-based drum solo by Jeff Boudreau on “Voyage.” According to the review, Cherif had first worked in Tunisian theater and backed several Tunisian singers before turning to jazz. Kelman called the disc a strong debut and hoped Cherif would soon record a full-length program of what the pianist called “Acoustic Tunisian Jazz.”

eJazzNews ran a second review of the same record nine days earlier, by Paul Donnelly, which spent more time on the bass and percussion: read Paul Donnelly’s review of Phrygian Istikhbar.

The record and the training behind it

The disc is short, with six tracks running just over 30 minutes: “Voyage,” “El Gasba,” “Blurred Vision,” “Waiting for Paris,” “Phrygian Istikhbar” and “Tunis by Night.” It was recorded in Paris with Diego Imbert on double bass, Jeff Boudreau on drums and Habib Samandi on percussion. The derbouka is a goblet drum and the bendir a frame drum, both common in North African music.

Kelman noted that Cherif had studied at the Bill Evans Piano Academy in France. Cherif’s biographies say he studied jazz piano and harmony in France with Bernard Maury, the French pianist and teacher who knew Bill Evans and co-founded the academy in Paris in 1996 with Samy Abenaïm. Maury died in 2005. Cherif describes himself as largely self-taught before that, and his biographies say he opened for Archie Shepp at the Jazz à Tunis festival early in his career.

What happened next

The full-length album Kelman hoped for arrived in 2006. Jasmine, also on WECH, added David Sauzay on saxophones and flute and Hamdi Makhlouf on oud to a rhythm section of Yoni Zelnik and Mourad Benhammou. All About Jazz reviewed both records, Phrygian Istikhbar in 2005 and Jasmine in 2006. A third album, Fuzzy Colours, followed in 2009, and Cherif’s website announced a quartet concert at the Carthage International Festival in Tunisia on July 23, 2010. His All About Jazz profile now lists New York City as his base, and in December 2025 he released Live at FTH Theatre, NYC, a four-track EP that includes “The Touch of Your Lips” and “But Not for Me.” For background on improvising over modes rather than chord changes, see our guide to modal jazz.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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