Tawazûn, Illyes Ferfera Quartet

The quartet has just completed a two-week tour of Canada as part of the Alliance Française network (November 2025) and will open its 2026 season at the Jass Club Paris. Created on the initiative of Franco-Algerian saxophonist Illyes Ferfera, the group brings together Simon Chivallon on piano, Tom Peyron on drums, and Arthur Henn on double bass.

Its music draws on the traditions of North Africa, North American jazz, Latin American music, and French musical culture, with the aim of creating syncretic and intercultural music. The composition process is inspired in particular by traditional Algerian and North African music and rhythms, from Diwane to Gnawa, as well as the songs of Cheikha Rimitti, while integrating the heritage of jazz through figures such as Archie Shepp, Steve Coleman, Anouar Brahem, and Miguel Zenon.

This universe is also rooted in European and French culture, with influences ranging from Georges Brassens to Olivier Messiaen and André Minvielle. In Arabic, Tawazûn means balance: a personal, aesthetic, and musical quest at the heart of their repertoire and the album “Tawazûn,” released on May 3, 2024, on the Déluge label.