Jazz Articles about Jane Bunnett

Cuban Odyssey: Spirits Of Havana

by Jim Santella
October 16, 2003

EMI Music Canada 2003

Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer have dedicated much of their lives to becoming acquainted with Cuba’s cultural roots as they apply to modern jazz. Their documentary has quite a history, since the couple has returned to Havana time and again as musical missionaries in search of hope.

Throughout Cuban Odyssey, interviews with leading Cuban musicians receive much of the emphasis, as Bunnett searches for the secrets that make this ...

Jane Bunnett: Cuban Odyssey

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 7, 2003

Jane Bunnett visited Cuba for the first time in 1982, but in many ways – musically, at least – she has never really left.

This Odyssey presents music from Havana and three other locales recorded during her trip to Cuba with trumpeter, producer and husband Larry Cramer, featuring Bunnett on flute and soprano sax (she is also a classically trained pianist and clarinetist). Its mix of folklore, dance and party music, traditional and modern Afro-Cuban, and modern ...

Jane Bunnett: Cuban Odyssey

by Franz A. Matzner
October 5, 2003

Equal parts ethno-musicological study and experiment, Cuban Odyssey offers a captivating investigation of native Cuban music as interpreted by flautist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett and her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer. Latin influences have been prominent in jazz since at least the 1940s, with new evidence suggesting that Afro-Cuban and other Latin based structures were integral to jazz from its genesis. For this reason alone, Jane Bunnett’s release represents something quite fascinating, as it allows listeners to hear a wide ...

Jane Bunnett: Cuban Odyssey

by Jim Santella
January 7, 2003

Traditional Cuban music and upbeat modern jazz go together like ice and water: one serves the other’s purpose in turn, while their union stands apart as a natural wonder. And where would we be without ice water?

Jane Bunnett’s Cuban adventure takes her on a journey outside the city limits of Havana to places such as Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Camag?ey: south and east of her previous encounters on a round-trip that covers over 600 miles. With a core ...

Jane Bunnett/Stanley Cowell/Dewey Redman: Spirituals & Dedications

by Mark Corroto
June 1, 2002

The spirituals from Spirituals & Dedications are traditional songs from the Christian church. The dedications here are to the immensely spiritual men of our modern musical times. Flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett and her husband/producer/trumpeter Larry Cramer assembled two often overlooked and under appreciated musicians, Stanley Cowell and Dewey Redman, to breathe sanctified life into some classical music.

Dewey Redman's tenor opens the recording on Bunnett's composition “Don's Light" in dedication to her late partner, pianist Don ...

Jane Bunnett: Alma De Santiago

by Jim Santella
November 1, 2001

Traditional music from Cuba covers a lot of territory. With vocal soloists and chorus, lively charanga flute features, a stellar jazz saxophone quartet, and a 38-piece percussion ensemble, the session stands on familiar ground. However, this is not mere traditional folkloric music. Bebop jazz and Afro-Cuban actions weave an exciting tale of ceremony and a history of ambassadorial reunions. Whether marching to an ancient cadence or quoting from “Salt Peanuts," the Cuban artists Bunnett has enlisted interact with her flute ...

Jane Bunnett: Alma De Santiago

by Jim Josselyn
November 1, 2001

When I began listening to this recording I began to immediately think of some of the things I enjoy most in music - creativity, execution, counterpoint, interplay, feeling and spirited improvisation - and this disc has all of those in abundance as saxophonist Jane Bunnett leads a group of fine musicians through some extremely fresh and extremely rewarding Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz. “Funky Mambo" opens the disc with thirty-two seconds of three saxophones in wonderful counterpoint and as it fades ...