The gods must be crazy, indeed. When the husband-and-wife founders of Lake Worth-based band Positively Africa (www.positivelyafrica.com), Julius and Julia Sanna, formed their group in 2007, it was to promote their native continent’s rich culture and music. In their minds, the band’s name countered the cliched images of war and famine they’d seen on evening news broadcasts since arriving in the United States 10 years earlier.
Flash forward to 2012, and it appears that area venue owners and managers’ minds are still focused on Africa’s stereotypical negative media coverage. Even after releasing one of the year’s best local CDs with their January debut, Introducing Positively Africa, the Sannas decided they needed to use a separate name this summer in order to increase their scarce club and restaurant bookings.
The Julius Sanna Groove Band is now fronted by its namesake Tanzania-born guitarist and vocalist, and the Kenya-born Julia, a singer and percussionist.
“We’ll still be Positively Africa for cultural events,” says the 37-year-old Julius. “But clubs, restaurants and hotels seem to have a narrow view of what to expect from us, and they’re looking for something more generic. For 15 years, Julia and I have noticed a negative view of Africa through American movies, TV, and even in the minds of kids and college students. Positively Africa was named to counter that notion, and we can play most anything. But clubs don’t know that, so we’re going with the Julius Sanna Groove Band for those bookings.”
Positively Africa’s lineup includes charter members in Bahamian saxophonist/flutist/percussionist Bernard Bain and percussionist/vocalist Marijah, who also leads her own popular self-titled area reggae band. The versatile rhythm section of bassist Cleveland Fredericks and drummer Rod Parker has solidified the band over the past three years, and that sextet burns on Julius’ Introducing Positively Africa originals like Tanga, Leo, Beautiful Africa and Pendo.
Blending African tradition with transitional popular music elements, the CD boasts great vocal and instrumental sounds, plus spirited performances from the sextet and guest multi-instrumentalists Kevin Cowart, Jody Marlow and Carlomagno Araya.
The Julius Sanna Groove Band is a quintet with both Sannas, Fredericks, Parker, and keyboardist Mark Doyle ― and it also sounds as advertised through a mix of jazz, pop, reggae and R&B standards. During a summer appearance at B.B. King’s in West Palm Beach, those included Sade’s Smooth Operator, George Gershwin’s Summertime, Bob Marley’s Stir It Up, the Average White Band’s Pick Up the Pieces and The Meters’ Cissy Strut.
“Mark brings a deep jazz vocabulary to the mix,” Parker says of the mad keyboard scientist. “Cleveland and I also play in a jazz trio with him, and Julius and Julia are equally comfortable with jazz and popular music feels.”
The couple arrived in America in 1997 well-versed in various styles, but not as husband and wife yet. Julius had moved to Kenya with his family as a young child; met Julia, and they both toured the United States with the Youth for Christ international ministry in 1996. The following January, she relocated to attend college at the University of Texas at Arlington (while singing in the Potter’s House Choir in Dallas), and she now uses her graduate degree in counseling psychology, and marriage and family therapy, as a church counselor and marriage preparation provider.
Julius moved to Oklahoma eight months later to attend Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla., on a soccer scholarship, and graduated with a degree in computer networking technologies. He’s now the worship and youth minister, and musical director, at the Lake Worth First Church of the Nazarene. In addition to his African and self-titled band gigs, he plays solo acoustic pop material, blues and Motown in a duo with singing harmonica player Clay Goldstein, and standards with various South Florida jazz artists.
“Julia and I initially met through the ministry,” Julius says. “I studied music at the Royal School of Music in Kenya through the Nairobi Conservatory, then took piano and guitar through high school and jazz lessons after I’d moved to Oklahoma. I figured I’d better go to America after Julia did if I was going to keep her. Eventually I went to Dallas, where Julia was. We got married in 2000 and moved to Lake Worth in 2003.”
The couple’s Positively Africa educational programs include working with the Palm Beach and Broward County library systems to present themed shows like “One World, Many Stories” and “The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ― An African Perspective.” The group performs African songs in traditional languages like Kiswahili, Leo and Kamba; conducts show-and-tells involving African instruments, clothing, sculptures and toys, and engages in drumming and dance with audience participation.
“We entertain and interact with kids ranging from 3 years old to high school ages,” Julius says. “When we ask them what they know about Africa; what comes to mind, most of them say poverty, war, AIDS, huts, animals and ‘The Lion King.’ They don’t know much about African technology, art and music.”
The Sannas’ own two sons, 6-year-old Jude and 3-year-old Jordan, have a much higher African learning curve. The two also keep their busy parents even busier.
“Jude is taking dance classes,” Julius says, “and I’m teaching him some piano. And he loves playing around with a microphone in his hand.”
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Even if it’s a baobab.
Positively Africa performs for Lake Worth nonprofit Inspirit (www.inspiritlive.org), the organization that takes live music to people in restricted environments, from 2:30-3:30 p.m Wednesday at the Edward J. Healy Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 1200 45th St., West Palm Beach (561-842-6111). The Julius Sanna Groove Band plays from 7-11 p.m. every Monday in September, and from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday at B.B. King’s, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach (561-420-8600), plus from 8 p.m.-midnight Saturday, Sept. 29 at South Shores, 502 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth (561-547-7656). Sanna’s TOST duo with Clay Goldstein also hosts the acoustic jams at South Shores from 7-11 p.m. Tuesdays.