The John Dapaah Quintet is sharing their unique fusion of African music and jazz with Ottawa this summer.
“With every song we do, we try to mix it up in a sense. We kind of throw a popular song in there that the audience might not be expecting,” said John Kofi Dapaah, director and pianist of the quintet.
“An example would be taking a slow tune and putting an Afrobeats groove to that and changing some of the chord progressions that go along with the tune,” Dapaah said.
The Afro Jazz (vol.2) concert featuring the local quintet will be held June 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa.
Dapaah said the upcoming concert will offer a blend of genres, infusing Afrobeats with jazz.
“It sounds like a mix of Latin Cuban grooves with jazz changes. So, for example, using augmented kind of chords, where it almost sounds like it shouldn’t make sense but it does. And then infusing African rhythms and Latin rhythms with it.”
Dapaah said the concert’s repertoire will consist of popular afrobeats and Latin jazz tunes, including Love Me Je Je by Tems, Love Nwantiti by CKay and Armando’s Rhumba by Chick Corea.
Dapaah is a well-known concert pianist and music teacher in the city. He has released two albums, and performed internationally and locally at Ottawa Chamberfest since the mid 2010s.
In the band, Dapaah is joined by Jay Wura on alto sax, Trevor Lubin on guitar, bass player Caylan Penny and Joel Oppong-Boateng, the group’s drummer.
The quintet and their Afro Jazz project were born last summer, when Dapaah gathered a group of fellow musicians together, including friends from church and high school.
The quintet’s music is informed by their West African and Caribbean roots.
“When we come together as a group we start making music, it’s like a mix of all our experiences in the music industry, plus our heritage that kind of comes out to naturally form the sound that we have created,” Dapaah said.
Dapaah said the connection the group has contributes to their success musically, especially when it comes to communication during the show.
“I believe that having good rapport with the ensemble is either going to make or break the concert. And at the end of the day, if we are having a great time onstage playing together, that energy, it pours over into what the audience experiences,” he said.
Dapaah said the group has fun at every step of the musical process, from arranging the tunes, to rehearsing and holding pre-concerts. This infectious energy carries over into the concerts, too.
“It’s truly going to be a party. And it’s going to be an environment where it’ll be hard to stay in your seats while we’re playing. And that’s exactly what happened at the last concert. By the end of the concert, the whole audience was on their feet dancing.”
