FROM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX

Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne are currently preparing for virtual appearances this spring at the Festival International de Louisiane and the Canadian Folk Music Awards, where they are nominated.

PHOTOS BY KSENIJA HOTIC

Groove is in the heart

Elizabeth Rodriguez left Cuba for a freer life in Toronto; she came to make music but stayed for Magdelys Savigne. The two met in a band here, fell in love, then formed their own group – the Latin jazz ensemble OKAN, whose second album, Espiral, was released during the pandemic. Now they’re waiting out the virus at home – cooking, teaching, preparing for virtual award shows and still making beautiful music together

When Magdelys Savigne saw Toronto for the first time, she remembers thinking it was paradise. It was 2014, and she had recently immigrated to Canada from Cuba, landing in Parkdale shortly before heading off on tour. “We were coming back from Colorado and we stopped in the Village during Pride. It was like a wonderland. What I saw was such freedom, and even the police were partaking in the celebration. Imagine, after being persecuted for just being gay, for holding hands – that stupidity? And then coming here.” It immediately felt like home.

For Elizabeth Rodriguez, another Cuban émigré who had not yet met Magdelys, her first contact with the city wasn’t quite the same. She was coming from Hamilton and didn’t yet speak English. “I was a close-minded island girl. I thought everybody was crazy. It totally freaked me out,” she says. She headed back to Hamilton. “It’s complicated, the background we have,” she explains. “We were running away from a dictatorship, so wherever we’re going it’s better than where we’ve come from. I didn’t think Toronto was going to be my city. I stayed because of her,” she says, looking at Magdelys, who’s sitting in the chair beside her in the studio at the back of their house. “Because of love. We fell in love. And I stayed because I wanted to show that I could make it in the city and become a musician. All the things that I’m doing now.”

The two first met when Elizabeth joined the Jane Bunnett and Maqueque band in Toronto in March 2016, on violin and vocals. Magdelys had been playing percussion with the group for three years at that point. While touring, they discovered that their voices worked well together. “Our harmonies were really tight,” says Elizabeth. The ensemble won a Juno and was nominated for a Grammy in Latin Jazz during their tenure. That’s when a friend of theirs, jazz legend Bill King, told them to start their own band.

“And that’s what we did. It was better to do our own thing.”

“Totally,” adds Magdelys, smiling. “You know how many things you have to go through to have a band in Cuba? Nothing exists outside the eye of the government. Here in Canada, you just do it.”

They formed OKAN in May 2016, Magdelys proposed in August and they were married the following year, in Malden, Massachusetts. Their first album, Sombras, released in 2019, was nominated for another JUNO, for World Music Album of the Year. “We were really proud of ourselves. This is our music that we composed, and being nominated for a Juno for that was a pretty big deal,” says Elizabeth, the lead singer and violinist. Magdelys plays drums and piano. The Latin jazz they create pushes the genre into new territory, according to CBC’s Fall Music Guide. And the Chicago Reader finds a “world of sound” in their Afro-Cuban grooves.

They also contributed to Lido Pimienta’s 2020 album Miss Colombia. “She was looking for singers who could sing backup vocals in Spanish,” recounts Elizabeth. “It was so easy to do this project with her because we understand the struggles of immigrants, where we’re coming from. And she’s just a really interesting human being.”

“She’s real,” says Magdelys.

After recording Miss Colombia, Pimienta was working with Bomba Estéreo. “They needed backing vocals for the coming album,” says Magdelys.

“They flew us to Colombia and we were recording an album with one of the biggest bands in Latin America,” Elizabeth adds. “Then we were supposed to go on tour either with Lido or Bomba Estéreo.” The future looked bright. It was February 2020.

In March, they were scheduled to fly to Saskatoon for the Juno ceremony. As they were walking out the door, on their way to Pearson, they got the email that the whole thing had been cancelled.

“That’s when everything fell apart,” says Magdelys.

“You know what you have to go through to have a band in Cuba? Nothing is outside the eye of the government. Here, you just do it”

Elizabeth has always cooked, which comes in handy when the world goes into lockdown and all your gigs get cancelled, including the North American tour tied to your debut album.

“Cooking has been kind of like therapy for me,” Elizabeth says. “I grew up with not a lot of food. I remember being 19 or 20 in Cuba and wanting to cook certain things and I didn’t have the [ingredients].” That is not a concern here in Toronto. The wealth of options available is a constant source of joy for both of them. They have a list of favourites: Claudia mangos, oranges, papaya, cardamom, rosemary, garlic, Brussels sprouts, dates, limes.

“People think because we’re from Cuba we’re supposed to have lime, right?” asks Elizabeth.

“But I remember when you couldn’t find limes anywhere.”

“Tomatoes!” squeaks Magdelys excitedly.

“In Cuba everything is seasonal,” Elizabeth explains. “Like, for real. Tomato season – when it’s over, it’s over. Now I eat tomatoes every day. It’s mind-blowing. It’s the best thing ever.”

“I love having milk,” Magdelys enthuses. “In Cuba, you don’t have that. And rice – we only have one type of rice. Here there are so many different types. I wanted to make normal rice and beans and the rice was not making itself as it should. It was all sticky. It was sushi rice!”

“I like to change my menu,” Elizabeth says, mentioning pad Thai and curries. “I don’t like to eat the same thing every day. And I’m not very good at following recipes. I’m always doing my own twist on things.”

Magdelys has one specialty: “Frijoles.”

“She makes the best Cuban beans ever,” smiles Elizabeth.

“I can only do beans. I like cooking slowly as if we’re in Cuba,” Magdelys says, explaining that, while her technique might be Cuban, her recipe has changed since moving to Toronto. “I use wine to cook the beans and spices we usually don’t use [there].”

Musicians Elizabeth Rodriguez & Magdelys Savigne

Their greatest Canadian food memory, though, is not from Toronto. It was formed in Montreal. It was 2 a.m. and they’d just finished a gig. “The snow was up to my knees and I was like, what is this poutine thing?” says Magdelys.

“Her love for potatoes is huge – her love for gravy even bigger. And then cheese? Those three things in one – she just couldn’t believe it,” Elizabeth laughs.

“Oh my god – why didn’t I think of this?” says Magdelys, remembering. “I fell in love with it.”

In October the pair took a leap of faith and released their second album, Espiral. They worried that the pandemic, and the fact they couldn’t tour, might affect sales, but they released it anyway.

“It was better than doing nothing and just disappearing,” says Elizabeth. “It was a little bit scary but it paid off,” Magdelys adds. “People are actually consuming art during this lockdown because there’s nothing else to do.”

Unable to tour, they’ve been working from home. Elizabeth teaches violin and voice, and Magdelys teaches drums and piano. “Nada,” one of Pimienta’s songs they sang backup on, was chosen by Barack Obama for his 2020 playlist, and Miss Colombia was nominated for a Grammy, a Latin Grammy and a Polaris Music Prize.

“We were part of a couple of songs, but this Grammy is Lido’s. She put five years of work into this album and it has become huge,” smiles Elizabeth.

“It’s been really, really, really great,” adds Magdelys.

Considering how many musical projects they touch turn into Grammy nominations, it wouldn’t hurt if they spent some time in lockdown getting their speeches ready. They are currently preparing for virtual appearances at the Festival International de Louisiane and the Canadian Folk Music Awards, where they are also nominated, this spring.

In the meantime, they have settled into domestic lockdown bliss. Just before Christmas they moved into their first house.

“Both of us grew up in very small places, so it was always a dream to be in a house,” says Elizabeth.

“I used to be a west side girl,” adds Magdelys – first in Parkdale, then Little Italy – “and then, I don’t know, everything changed. The east side is more quiet. We’re chill now in the east.”

IN OKAN'S KITCHEN

Groove is in the heart

OKAN’s favourite restaurants

JATUJAK

NUNU ETHIOPIAN

THAI HOUSE CUISINE

PHO PHUONG

CAFÉ DIPLOMATICO