WINDHOEK Born in 1974 at St Pierre (Reunion), Meddy Gerville’s musical career has conducted to his own original musical style called “jazz mÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚©tis”. At 14 and self-taught, he started playing keyboards. His saxophonist father would take him to play in churches where he studied musical notation by interpreting the canticles and soon afterwards he started giving his own performances. At the end of his secondary education, Meddy decided to pursue formal training in music under Marc Thomas and Bojan Zulfikarpasic. In 1997, Meddy and his trio released his first album, Reunion Island. His second album entitled Jazz’Oya came out in 2000. Again in 2004, Meddy released his third album Sobat ek lamour. The year 2000 marks an important turning point in the musical life of Meddy Gerville, on meeting of some world-well-known artists: The bassist Dominique Di Piazza: of Sicilian origin, but resident in Lyon, Dominique discovered the bass thanks to Jaco Pastorius when he was with the Heavy Weather. Self-taught, he developed a singular technique of picking the strings between the thumb and index finger of his right hand which gave him a unique rapidity and precision. His sound knowledge of be-bop and harmony make him one of the most well known bassists in the world of jazz. The guitarist Jean Marie Ecay was born in Saint Jean de Luz (Basque Country). After studying musical notation at the Conservatory of Bayonne and an additional year spent on the guitar, he started playing with different local bands in the region. Between 1983 and 1988, Jean Marie settled in Spain and joined the Basque pop band Itoiz. Around the same time, he collaborated with Claude Nougaro. In 1995, he released his first live solo album Atlantic Blues. He toured regularly with Richard Galliano. In 2001, his second album World Energy Blues saw the light day. The Cuban-born American drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez was born in Havana in 1963 and grew up surrounded by music since his tender age. His grandfather played trumpet in a traditional Cuban band. At 14 he joined the School of Music where he concentrated solely on drum to the detriment of other course materials. By ploughing 10 hours of study per day, he was able to finish in a year a four-year drummer course. Then he moved to New York where he has played in many clubs different types of music: Jazz, Blues, Folk … He later joined the band of Carlos Santana on tours all around the world and is now one of the best drummers of his generation.