Projects

IFRIQIYA

An exploration of the African roots of Tunisian music with a hybrid ensemble mixing a Jazz quartet and traditional Tunisian percussions.

Project Created By

Yacine Boulares

After graduating with a BA in Philosophy French-Tunisian saxophonist and composer Yacine Boulares decides to take a year off to respond to the urge to play music.

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Project Location

New York, New York
Key Collaborators

Nasheet Waits

Drums

Meera Dugal

Production Manager
Project Dates

Start Date
October 15, 2019

End Date
March 20, 2020

IFRIQIYA

An exploration of the African roots of Tunisian music with a hybrid ensemble mixing a Jazz quartet and traditional Tunisian percussions.

In a collection of all original material, IFRIQIYA will bridge Tunisian rhythmic traditions to the language of modern jazz connecting Tunisian music and it’s sub saharan African roots via the Jazz idiom as an attempt to reinvent an Afro-Tunisian musical identity.

In order to implement this project, a Jazz quartet including saxophonist Yacine Boulares, drummer Nasheet Waits, bassist Simon Tailleu and pianist Maxime Sanchez will travel to Tunisia for 10 days. The quartet will travel with an audio recording engineer and a videographer in order to document the process leading to the recording of an album in New York.

Each work session will be focused on one specific rhythm and will result in an original composition. At the end of the residency the quartet will fly back to NYC and spend 4 days in a recording studio to record an album of original compositions informed by their encounter with Tunisian percussionists, some of whom will be featured as guests artists on the album.