Guest
Recorded June 24, 2022, on the TD Stage in Festival Village as part of the 35th annual TD Toronto Jazz Festival. Taking their name from the word for “heart“ or “soul“ in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, Juno Award-winning OKAN fuses Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global rhythms in songs about immigration, courage and love. They have worked with Bomba Estereo, Lido Pimienta, Daymé Arocena and Telmary Diaz, among others, and their latest release Espiral has earned international acclaim from the likes of OkayAfrica, NPR and Songines; it debuted at the No. 1 position on the Earshot international charts and was included in CBC Music's top 20 and NPR's top 10 alt-Latino albums of the year. The group is co-led by Elizabeth Rodriguez, a classically trained violinist born in Havana, Cuba, who served as concertmaster for Havana’s Youth Orchestra, and Magdelys Savigne, hailing from Santiago de Cuba, who graduated with honours in orchestral percussion from Havana’s Univer
