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“Beyond categorization” is an apt term for describing Canadian saxophonist/flutist
Jane Bunnett's latest release. Recorded with a variety of indigenous Cuban bands, ensembles, and choruses,
Cuban Odyssey is largely a heralding of the musics of Cuba, including ‘son’, the antecedent to salsa with its roots in the percussion of transplanted Africans; the more Latin-inflected guitar and maracca sounds of the small city; the choirs of Haitian patois
singers—and the compatibility of these musics with jazz when Bunnett and her trumpeter husband chime in and play on top of the rhythms (itself a part of the ‘son’ tradition, where melody lines danced above the percussive patterns).
This listening experience will prove like few others—especially when Bunnett’s flute cavorts around, and echoes through, the choirings of Grupo Vocal Descendaan, the descendants of Haitian slaves whose voices rise like those in an English cathedral, with a touch of the Budapest Women’s Choir and only a hint of gospel. Other times it is a gathering in the village square, with hoarse singers, drums and the Bunnett saxophone chiming in, and then making a perfect fit as on “Ron con Ron [Rum With Rum]”. And when Bunnett finds a jazz groove, as on “Pensando en Jane,” her mastery of the North American idiom is demonstrated.
Do not think of this as a jazz recording, a jazz interpretation or extrapolation of Cuba, or a hybridized breed. It is Cuba, the raw, undiluted Cuba, celebrated with an occasional jazz twist. A true odyssey, and a remarkable listening experience.
Jane Bunnett:
Cuban Odyssey (Blue Note)
Release Date:
7 January 2003
Also available
Jane Bunnett:
Cuban Odyssey: Spirit Of Havana - DVD (Blue Note)
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last update 3 September 2003