African Rhapsody : Leila Olivesi 5Tet

Académie du Jazz 2025 French Album Award
Best Female Musician of the Year and Best Conductor, Top Jazz 2025
2022 Django Reinhardt Award “Enchanting, effortless, spellbinding without a marabout—African Rhapsody flows naturally. Leïla Olivesi, her compositions, and her ensembles are at the peak of their art.” — Francis Marmande, Le Monde

With *African Rhapsody*, Franco-Mauritanian pianist Leïla Olivesi delivers a powerful ode to love and freedom, paying homage to the poetic, multicultural Africa of her origins.
“My vision of Africa pays homage to Duke Ellington, to women, and to the writings of the Negritude poets, through music that I intended to be joyful and jubilant, but also profound and spiritual,” Leïla Olivesi confided to Lionel Eskenazi in Jazz Magazine. And that is precisely what we seek today in creative jazz—this desire to forge a bright future for ourselves without ever forgetting the lessons of the great masters.

*African Rhapsody*, released in 2025, is an album that is at once poetic, lyrical, modern, and vibrant. A lively and enchanting musical bouquet.
Leïla Olivesi creates music where the rigor of composition blends with the freedom of improvisation, fueled by a deep reflection on the history of jazz and the dialogue between cultures.
Piano, composition: Leïla Olivesi | tenor saxophone, flute: Adrien Sanchez | guitar: Manu Codjia | double bass: Yoni Zelnik | drums: Donald Kontomanou