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Explorations
Wajdi Cherif
Label: B. Chord Music
Released: 2027
Duration: 30:12
Views: 19
Tracks
Saturday Blues, Con Alma, Melancholic Musings, Rio Reverie, The Touch of Your Lips, Tout de Suite
Personnel
Album Description
Explorations is a new studio album by pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif, featuring Gary Wang on acoustic bass and Robert Garcia on drums. The album brings together five performances that move through contrasting moods, rhythmic landscapes, and musical perspectives, with the interaction of the trio at the center of each performance.
The album opens with “Saturday Blues,” an energetic modern jazz-blues that uses the blues as a starting point for intricate writing, rhythmic movement, improvisation, and spontaneous interplay between piano, bass, and drums.
“Con Alma,” Dizzy Gillespie’s composition, introduces hand percussion and a warm Latin character before moving into swing. The performance balances lyrical piano playing with increasing rhythmic energy and culminates in an expressive drum feature.
“Melancholic Musings” is an introspective original composition written as a tribute to pianist and educator Dr. Barry Harris. Inspired by Cherif’s experience attending Harris’s workshops in Manhattan, the piece carries a sense of reflection and gratitude, connecting personal memory with the experience of learning, listening, and carrying the music forward.
On “Rio Reverie,” Brazilian rhythmic influences create a dreamlike sense of movement and atmosphere. The music shifts naturally between composed passages and improvisation while remaining grounded in the physical pulse of the trio.
The album closes with “The Touch of Your Lips,” Ray Noble’s classic standard. A solo piano introduction establishes an intimate atmosphere before the trio enters, gradually moving toward a more driving swing and giving the familiar song renewed energy.
Together, the five performances move through ease, warmth, reflection, melancholy, intimacy, and momentum. Rather than following a single mood or style, Explorations allows each piece to create its own atmosphere while the trio’s interaction provides a continuous thread.
Recorded at Pinch Recording Studio in New York City in December 2024, the album captures the musicians in a focused studio setting while retaining the immediacy and responsiveness of musicians playing together.
Some of the compositions have appeared in earlier live recordings, including Live at FTH Theatre, NYC (B. Chord Music, BCM001), but these studio performances offer a different perspective: more intimate, deliberate, and detailed.
Album uploaded by Wajdi Cherif
