By Errol Nazareth
In Spirits Of Havana, a documentary film filled with memorable images and gorgeous music, watching Jane Bunnett and Grupo Vocal Desandann making transcendental music together qualifies as a personal highlight.
Like black gospel or qawwalli, there's a quiet strength and deep sense of history in the traditional and spiritual Haitian songs that Desandann, a 10-member vocal ensemble based in Camaguey, perform.
Quite simply, it's difficult not to be moved by what they do.
Nanan Fonn Bwaa is the magic that unravelled when Bunnett and the choir recorded in Desandann's hometown. The composition, which sees Bunnett deftly weaving her stellar, soulful playing with Desandann's glorious voices, will appear on the film's soon-to-be-released accompanying CD.
Directed by Luis Garcia and Bay Weyman, Spirits Of Havana documents Bunnett's and husband/trumpeter Larry Cramer's two-month journey across Cuba in '99.
"The reaction to (Desandann) has been really strong; everybody says their music really hits them," Bunnett says from her Parkdale pad. "It's very solemn and dignified and it speaks to a lot of people."
Given this, any collaboration with the group requires one to bring a ton of sensitivity and respect to the table.
"It was one of the most difficult collaborations because I had to approach it from a different direction," Bunnett explains. "With the other (Cuban) groups, there are a lot of textures, you can play off the rhythms and the melodies feel a little more abstract.
"But with Desandann, the music is really soulful and church-like and I had to really tune in to the essence of that," she says. "They're singing the music of their ancestors and I'm out of the loop. I'm from another culture and it's not my music, but the melodies were beautiful and to be in the middle of those voices in that room gave me a chill."
Spirits Of Havana features equally spirited jam sessions with legendary Afro-Cuban rumberos Los Munequitos de Matanzas, son giants Los Naranjos, and with an all-star group comprised of esteemed musicians and singers like Tata Guines, Pancho Quinto, Papi Oviedo, Guillermo Rubalcaba and Ernesto Gatell.
As she did when she first began working with Cuban musicians in the '80s, Bunnett walked away from each of these performances "feeling like something very intense and meaningful happened.
"That happens a lot when I work with Cuban musicians, because they're so intense about what they do and the music is so rich," she says. "And they don't just practise it musically, they also practise the religion behind it and that really propels you to dig deep."
Music is "a vital life force that keeps people alive" in Cuba, Bunnett says, adding that "it's so integrated in people's lives.
"For them, music isn't something you do and then you go off and do something else."
