OKAN

Okantomi by OKAN

Charged with the profound power of their African ancestry, the heart of OKAN’s third album is Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne’s complex relationship with Cuba.

“The 6th track ‘No Volvi’ is a perfect example of the deep ambivalence that we feel about our homeland. In the song we’re saying we won’t go back, that we won’t deal with repression that the government inflicts on the people of Cuba any more. But at the same time we know that our whole world, all our experiences and the way we react to them are shaped by our identity as Cubans and our Afro-Latin heritage.” - Elizabeth Rodriuez and Savingne.

Okantomi melds Afro-Cuban forms including sacred Lacumi chants and rhythms with virtuosic jazz and classical performances, as the Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated leaders Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne lay the foundation for special guest appearances by Cuban heavyweights spanning multiple generations. Cuban music fans will recognize contributions by vocalist Dayme Arocena, guitarist Elmer Ferrer, pianist Miguel de Amas (N.G. La Banda) and bassist Roberto Riveron (Klimax, Cubanismo) alongside the renowned classical violinist Lara St. John.

Having continued to mature as both composers and performers since their JUNO-winning Espiral release in 2020, Rodriguez and Savigne explore the tensions between their love of their homeland, the heartbreak of witnessing how the country’s continued political and economic crises affect the island’s population, and their experiences as Latina immigrants to a country that has its own baked-in inequities and contradictions when it comes to racism and human rights.

Unifying the stylistically diverse tracks that make up the album is the intention to honor the orishas or deities of the Santeria religion through OKAN’s contemporary artistic practice. Elizabeth explains, “The various tracks of the album explore our connections to the different deities who guide us in the different aspects of our lives. For example the album begins with a song for Eleguá, the spirit who governs pathways and crossroads, and who represents beginnings. Eleguá had to come first. Another song, ‘Oshun’, is dedicated to my goddess and who is associated with love, fertility and abundance. That song was written at a time when I was newly pregnant and still dealing emotionally with a recent miscarriage. It was born out of fear of losing another pregnancy and in the song, I appeal to Oshun for protection.

Most of the songs reflect the personal growth that in retrospect we can see that we’ve both undergone as we’ve dealt with miscarriages, disappointments and just the general struggle to survive as artists.”

Elizabeth explains how the first single La Reina del Norte came into being. “I came up with the violin line while performing at a classical festival last year. I wanted to mix our classical music training with popular styles from our Cuban homeland. (In school in Cuba, we were discouraged from playing music that was considered by the institution to be from the countryside or from the street.) Playing three strings at the same time on the violin is pretty hard on its own. Doing it while dancing and moving my butt is even harder! The song highlights the conga genre from Santiago de Cuba, allowing us to fulfill the mission that we have set ourselves to preserve and celebrate traditional Cuban forms, while reinventing this particular genre and giving it a modern twist through the synth lines, violin, and instrumentation.”

"OKAN‘s vocal- and percussion-driven tracks evoke their homeland yet also reflect the vibrant Cuban-Canadian community”
- NOW Magazine

"Espiral, the astonishing follow up to their Juno-nominated 2019 debut, push[es] Latin jazz into new and unexpected territories...[Espiral is] lush and vibrant, urgent but specific and deeply intentional"

- CBC Music

Juno nominated 2020 women-led contemporary Afro-Cuban roots and jazz.

Taking its name from the word for heart or soul in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, OKAN fuses Afro-Cuban and other global rhythms with jazz, folk and classical forms.

Embracing genres and roles that have historically been dominated by men, co-leaders, composers and multi-instrumentalists Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne bring a fresh perspective to Latin and world jazz fusion through their powerful vocals, incredible musicianship and potent lyrical content.