Hijaz

Hijaz is a quintet that combines elements from worldmusic and jazz. Moufadhel Adhoum, Tunesian oudplayer brings in the Nord-African melodic themes while Niko Deman from Greek origine adds his traditional influences to the music. Together with the Moroccan percussionist Azzedine Jazzouli, basplayer Chris Mentens and drummer Chryster Aerts both jazz musicians from Belgium, Hijaz creates a European-Mediterranean jazzy sound.
In 2005, Hijaz collaborated on recording “Rag Rag”, a CD of Zohra Lajnef which was released on the Tunesian music market.
Now they released their first instrumental album, ‘Dunes’.
Hijaz is...
Moufadhel Adhoum was born in 1965 in one of the most popular neighbourhoods of old Medina, Tunisia. At the age of 12 he was introduced to the art of oud by the great master of traditional Tunesian and Eastern music, Mr. Abderrahmane El Mehdi. He collaborated with Ghalia Benali in a project named Romeo and Leila, a fairytale about searching for musical and philosophical sounds. Moufadhel Adhoum teaches at Musique Publique and Pianofabriek in Brussels.

Niko Deman showed enthusiasm for music from a small age. That’s why at the age of eight he got his first keyboard. At the age of 16 the Greek background of his mother motivated him to start playing the bouzouki on his own. About four years later a Greek traditional music group was born which practiced the genre rebetika. In 1997, his growing interest in jazz made him put all his energy in studying jazz piano at the Jazz Studio the Academy of Music of Antwerp in 2000.Today Niko is a teacher of Jazz and Light Music in several schools.

Chris Mentens studied musicology at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he graduated suma cum laude. Although principally self-taught, Chris studied intermittently under Hein Van De Geyn, John Clayton and Ricardo Delfra. Chris has accompanied solo artists from Mal Waldron, Deborah Brown, Gordon Brisker, Al De Fino and Slide Hampton to Gene Connors, Sylvia Droste and Judy Niemack. He is a member of The Chris Joris Experience and No Vibrato. Chris Mentens’s own band is the Chris Mentens Jazz Van.

Chryster Aerts studied drums at the Academy of Music of Antwerp. He enrolled in several teaching practices for drums and percussion in both his own country and foreign countries (Berklee Summerschool in Italy, African percussion in Senegal, etc.). Nowadays he mostly puts his energy in the booty shakin' bigband De Millenniums and the pop group Assunta Mano. He teaches drums and percussion classes at the Music Academies of Borgerhout, Hoogstraten and Grimbergen.

Azzedine Jazouli was born in Fez (Morocco). He studied percussion from a very young age. Influenced by many people and traditions he became one of the best percussionist in Morocco. He played all around the world with f.e. Goran Bregovic. Currently Azzedine lives in Belgium and plays with many groups. He teaches percussion in several schools.