BY ISAAC HAN

In print | Published November 11, 2010

Afropolitan group Soulfège will be performing this Friday as part of the Cooper Series, bringing their music’s African roots onto the world stage. The band’s founders, DNA (Derrick N Ashong) and Jonathan Gramling, are from Ghana and the Philadelphia area, respectively. The other members of the band — Alex Staley, Stix Bones, Atta Addo and Micah Hulscher — originate from different places across the United States, ranging from Oregon to Seattle. The influences of each of the members’ unique experiences growing up as an Afropolitan combine to form a sound that blends a diverse array of musical genres.

Afropolitan is the combination of the words African and cosmopolitan. It describes the generation of the children of African emigrants to the West who therefore grew up in a culture different from their family’s heritage. Bridging these two cultures, these children typically identify with both. Therefore they are neither African nor American, for example, but rather a mix: thus, the creation of a distinctly Afropolitan worldview.

Having met as undergrads at Harvard University in a choir group, Soulfège blend the different qualities of gospel, reggae, hip-hop and jazz to continue a conversation about the powerful unifying power of music.

In fact, their name embodies a spirit to work toward a better understanding of culture through music. The name Soulfège is a play on the French word, solfège, or the Italian, solfeggio, the “Do-Re-Mi” visualization of musical notes that helps musicians to start learning about music. The clever pun is a reference, obviously, to their African influences. Soulfège hopes to teach people about music and help them to think more broadly about the diversity of the musical experience.

“We live in a digital world, a cosmopolitan world, and our music is about how we can engage and embrace culture as it feels to us,” DNA said in a phone interview.

“It’s interesting the way that they incorporate their American experience and their African heritage and create music that reflects the multiculturalism of the present world,” Diego Menendez-Estrada ’11 said about his excitement for Friday’s Soulfège performance.

Their song “Sweetheart” features a reggae melody and soul-inspired vocals that is supported by a smooth jazz saxophone solo. The combination of these three musical genres creates a song that is sweet in its lyrics about the joys of falling in love, calm in its reggae melody and eccentric in its jazz elements. The experience can be described as a soulful and poignant feeling of relaxation that flows through the heart and the spirit. The many different elements that went into establishing its meaningful experience can also be appreciated.

“A song is greater than its individual parts, and it’s about what we can achieve together and how we can create a better form,” Gramling said.

By reconciling their identities as Afropolitans of the world engaging in a broad musical atmosphere, they establish a universal sound, as they did in “Sweetheart,” in which everyone can relate on some level or another. “We just want to sit down and have a meal,” DNA said. “It’s food for the soul,” Gramling said, adding onto DNA’s comment.

Soulfège will be performing in LPAC on Friday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m.

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