Leila Olivesi Quintet

| Jazz, compositions

French-Mauritanian pianist Leïla Olivesi is a brilliant artist in the French jazz scene, composer, and orchestra leader. She was elected "Musician of the Year" in the Top Jazz 2025 by Jazz Magazine and Jazz News.

Her new album, "African Rhapsody," has just received the French Record Award from the Academy of Jazz. The sixth female laureate of the Django Reinhardt Award in 72 years and an accomplished composer, Leïla recently signed two works for choir: "Rhapsody in Black" with the International Philharmonic Choir (2024), and "Around the World in 80 Moons" for the Voco choir of the Hauts-de-Seine department (Seine Musicale, 2025).

Conductor for the 2025 edition of the Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents Festival with the AMU Jazz Big Band, she has been leading her medium ensemble since 2018.

Nurtured since childhood by jazz, poetry, and authors of negritude, the pianist has created a new musical universe tailored for her octet, where writing and improvisation blend with magic.

The culmination of the group whose third album it is, "African Rhapsody" confirms the talents of the composer and magnifies an orchestra of inspired soloists (Baptiste Herbin, Quentin Ghomari, Adrien Sanchez, Jean-Charles Richard, and Manu Codjia), enhanced by an unprecedented vocal and choral dimension.

This opus invites you to travel from Africa to Corsica, through the dunes of Chinguetti and New York. It notably includes a tribute to Wayne Shorter entitled Wayne Left Town, stunning with swing, as well as a nod to Duke Ellington with "Little African Flower."