Live Mbongui: Looking Back at Ge'eza's African Jazz Concert

Live Mbongui, an African jazz evening put on by Ge'eza, was held on Saturday 17 October 2026, from 6pm to 8:30pm, with a 2,000 F entry fee: a concert of jazz with African influences, carried by Dada Bass (bass and vocals), Bénis (drums) and Jered (piano), paired with live music and Ethiopian food. The event is now over; upcoming dates at the house are tracked through the events page, the calendar or the monthly newsletter.

A concert built around African jazz

Live Mbongui paired a jazz repertoire with African influences, carried by a tight trio: Dada Bass on bass and vocals, Bénis on drums, Jered on piano. The name of the evening nods to the mbongui, a word used in several Central African cultures for a gathering space built for shared conversation, a fitting idea for an evening meant to feel like a shared moment rather than a straightforward concert.

An evening in Point E

The event took place at Ge'eza's villa, at 656 avenue Birago Diop, in Point E, on Saturday 17 October 2026, from 6pm to 8:30pm. Entry was set at 2,000 F, roughly 3 euros at the fixed exchange rate. As with the house's other regular formats, the evening combined live music with Ethiopian food, in a setting built for listening rather than a loud party atmosphere. The event page now carries the "past event" label and stays online as a record of the evening.

What this format says about Ge'eza's programme

Live Mbongui joins the formats the house has already run: brunch and live music during exhibitions, the coffee ceremony, tastings and makers' markets. The programme mixes several art forms this way, from painting to music, inside a single place that remains first and foremost an Ethiopian restaurant and an art gallery. The spirit stays the same across formats: a human-scale evening, built for people to meet rather than to draw a crowd.

Jazz and African music, a long-running dialogue

Jazz grew out of a meeting of several musical traditions, including an African heritage carried through the diaspora; since then, many musicians on the continent have carried that dialogue the other way, folding African rhythms and instruments back into a jazz setting. Live Mbongui sat inside that lineage, with a bass, drums and piano trio that let African influences come through without sticking to a single repertoire. For another example of this dialogue between African music and wider forms, the guide on Ethio-jazz looks at the meeting between jazz and Ethiopian music, popularised by Mulatu Astatke.

A human-scale evening rather than a big concert

Like the house's other musical formats, Live Mbongui was not built to draw a large crowd: the evening stayed focused on close listening, in a setting that remains first and foremost a restaurant and a gallery, not a concert hall. That smaller scale made it possible to hear each instrument in the trio clearly, and to enjoy the Ethiopian food served alongside without the music getting lost in the noise of a bigger room.

Looking back at past events

To revisit earlier events, such as Lien commun, Dia Nifanena or the editions of the Country in the Spotlight series, the events archive keeps the page for every past date. The dedicated page for Live Mbongui also remains available, with its schedule and lineup.

Finding out about what comes next

No date is announced here in advance: the house only confirms an event once it is ready to be published. To avoid missing a future concert, exhibition or tasting, the calendar page, which offers a subscribable schedule, or the house's monthly newsletter are the places to follow. Ge'eza's Instagram account also shares these announcements throughout the year.

Visiting the gallery and restaurant between events

Outside of evenings like Live Mbongui, Ge'eza's villa stays open during restaurant hours, Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 10pm, closed on Monday. It is a good occasion to see the gallery's works, have a coffee the Ethiopian way, or simply have lunch on the terrace, without waiting for the next concert.

A format that could return in another shape

Nothing currently points to a second Live Mbongui concert: for now, the event stands as a single evening in the house's programme. If a similar musical format comes back, whether under the same name or a different one, it will be announced through the same channels as other dates: the calendar page, the monthly newsletter and Instagram, with no date fixed in advance here.

Why the name stuck in people's minds

A one-word name tied to a specific sound, rather than a generic label like concert night, tends to stay with guests who were there, which matters for a house building a varied programme across music, food and art.