Cuban-Canadian band OKAN defies categorization. On stage, they are a riot of colour, harmony and joyous rhythm. They infuse their Afro-Cuban sound with jazz, classical, Afro-Brazilian rhythms and more.
At the heart of it are violinist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist Magdelys Savigne. “Heart” is actually what “okan” means, within the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria.
Their music is big, powerful and incredibly fun, even as it tackles some big topics, including loss, immigration and politics.
“We want people to move and dance. We understand that when people hear our music or see us live, and they haven’t experienced it before, it is a lot to take in,” says Elizabeth. “So from our second album, Espiral, to this one, we wanted to simplify a little bit. Which … I don’t think we did,” she bursts into laughter.
The married duo released their third album, Okantani, last fall. It was just nominated for a JUNO Award for Global Music Album of the Year. Their first two received critical acclaim, including JUNO nominations and a JUNO win for Espiral.
The Toronto-based band is now on their way to Alberta, part of their Western Canada tour. After that, they are relocating to the United States for the foreseeable future, to connect with Cuban musicians and Cuban musical communities there.
“We are very ambitious people, very adventurous people,” says Elizabeth. “We keep moving forward.”
Both classically trained in Cuba, the two met playing in the Grammy-nominated group Maqueque. They left to launch OKAN in 2017.
They’re busy touring to promote Okantani but already focusing on their next album.
“We don’t stop, the muse still comes, and we still need to create,” says Magdelys.
Next up, in addition to diving deeper into their Cuban musical heritage, is bringing a more modern sound to their music.
“As Cuban classically trained musicians, you’re stuck up, judgmental, about electronic music or reggaeton, all this new stuff that’s happening,” says Elizabeth. “But people are loving it! So with a lot of learning and growing up and therapy we’ve learned that we need to embrace it and learn rather than criticizing. So we have been humbly accepting the challenge of modernizing our sound. It’s a huge challenge but the whole point is just to keep moving.”
They’re also working to break into the American market, and recently joined High Road Touring, an American agency representing such names as Bahamas, Broken Social Scene and Wilco.
As they keep moving, they’re also proud of how far they’ve come.
“We represent so many things. We represent the Latino community, women, black women, queer, mothers, immigrants, all these things people can see, like, ‘okay, you can do this, you can go that far,'” says Elizabeth. “We’re probably not going to go as far as the people that come behind but somebody needs to open the door.”
“We feel Canada gave us a lot of opportunities. And we’re taking them all.”
See OKAN live in Canmore, February 29, in Edmonton, March 1 and Calgary, March 2. Find details and tickets here.
You can also hear them in conversation with Grant Stovel on Alberta Morning on Friday, March 1.
For a glimpse of OKAN’s last tour to Western Canada, check out this video:
