Our mission is all about building bridges between musical genres, generations, races, and cultures, past and present. What will people discover when they listen to our music? "Love". Having such a mindset enables our production environment to be more conducive for innovative things to happen. At an early age performing with such artist as Anita Baker, Force MD’s, Chapter 8, and The Time, as well as legends Martha Reeves and LJ Reynolds, John Smith came up with the concept of combining the forms of Jazz, Funk, R&B, and Latin, which birth the form now known as “Latin Funk”. His vision of the genre came to be after the tragic death of the artist Selina. From that moment John internalized his vision and proceeded to go forth and create the sound that dwelled within him. Da`Ja has built the bridge of these special genres of music together and presented it to the people. Some popular venues were the Detroit Gem Theatre, Fisher Theatre, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre (formerly Chene Park), Hart Plaza and The Detroit Opera House. Da'Ja's continued progression is to capture the international circuit and bring Latin Funk to the forefront of the music industry.
Who is John Smith? John grew up in church, created his first band in Jr. High School, played in street bands, performed in talent shows and indoor/outdoor private functions. As he grew older, John continued to pursue his musical career and developed in many different music genres. He plays guitar, trumpet and drums. John’s focus now is on arranging, writing and playing the drums. John created the group Da’Ja. (The name means “Ready”). Da’Ja had to revamp in 2002. John came up with a new idea to create a new sound. The idea came from the Latin singing-legend Selena. She created a new Latin- Pop sound and John created what is now known as Latin-Funk. John then started to recruit new musicians and they released their first CD “Straight Up John Smith & Da’Ja”.
Da’Ja opened up for such artists as Anita Baker, Chapter 8, Martha Reeves, The Forced MD’s, The Time, Carl Carlton and a host of other artists. Da’Ja is about building bridges between musical genres, generations, race and culture – past and present. Their second CD “Up & Ready” (2008) has received rave reviews for its hit single “Lost Chronicals”. John Smith & Da’Ja has continued creating timeless music on their third project entitled Da'Jatize and in preparation for the fourth Life After Life, which will feature their latest hot single on Smooth Jazz Top 100 - "Right On Key"!
John Smith and Da’Ja has performed in venues and festivals throughout the country. They also were the 2013 Nominee for the Instrumental & Jazz Artist of the Year at the 23rd Annual L.A. Music Awards. Look for John Smith & Da’Ja at a venue near you. The group is available for private and public functions. We look forward to serving you so that you can experience the love and become "Da'Jatized"!