Emerging late in the 1980s via the recording In Dew Time, Toronto-born Jane Bunnett gained recognition as a Grammy Award-winning soprano saxophonist and flutist whose primary focus remained a fluid Afro-Cuban jazz approach. Subsequent projects found her working alongside leading Cuban jazz figures, a partnership already evident on her second album, Spirits of Havana from 1991, before she made her first appearance on Blue Note with the 1996 release Jane Bunnett and the Cuban Piano Masters. A short departure from Afro-Cuban repertoire produced 2002’s Spirituals & Dedications, after which she returned in 2003 with Cuban Odyssey, an effort that secured both Juno and Grammy honors. Further activity included a 2011 collaboration with longtime associate Hilario Durán on Cuban Rhapsody, followed by a sustained partnership with the Cuban jazz sextet Maqueque that placed their third joint recording, 2019’s On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme, on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
Mary Jane Bunnett entered the world in Toronto in 1956 and first pursued classical piano training at the Royal Conservatory of Music until tendonitis ended that trajectory. Attendance at a Charles Mingus ensemble concert in San Francisco redirected her toward advanced jazz, while studies with Steve Lacy in Paris shaped her soprano saxophone work and earlier classical lessons in Canada grounded her flute playing.
Her initial sessions with pianist Don Pullen appeared on the 1988 Dark Light debut In Dew Time, which also featured saxophonist Dewey Redman and her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer, her most consistent partner. The following year brought the duet album New York Duets with Pullen, and 1990 saw the live quintet document Live at Sweet Basil that added bassist Kieran Overs and drummer Billy Hart to the core group of Bunnett, Cramer, and Pullen. The exploratory 1991 album Spirits of Havana incorporated vocalist Merceditas Valdés, pianists Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Hilario Durán, and numerous additional contributors. Cramer, Pullen, Overs, and Hart reconvened for 1994’s The Water Is Wide, now augmented by vocalists Jeanne Lee and Sheila Jordan. Releases in 1995 comprised Rendez-Vous Brazil/Cuba together with the Cramer-produced Jane Bunnett and Cuban Piano Masters, the latter marking her Blue Note introduction.
Havana Flute Summit reached the public on Naxos in 1997, preceding the 1998 Blue Note successor Chamalongo, issued under the billing Jane Bunnett & the Spirits of Havana, a name retained for 2000’s Ritmo & Soul. Alma de Santiago arrived in 2001, succeeded by Spirituals & Dedications, a collection blending original pieces, traditional hymns, and compositions by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Stanley Cowell, and Mingus that also paid tribute to Pullen. Cuban Odyssey earned Juno and Grammy awards in the Best Global and Best Latin Jazz Album categories respectively, again drawing on an expansive roster that included Valdés, Durán, and drummer Francisco Mela.
A 2004 project with the Penderecki String Quartet yielded Red Dragonfly, also issued as Tombo, while 2006’s Radio Guantánamo: Guantánamo Blues Project, Vol. 1 enlisted percussion ensembles Grupo Changui de Santiago and Grupo Changui de Guantanamo alongside Redman, Cramer, and further participants, securing the Juno Award for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year. The Afro-Cuban/Haitian a cappella choir Grupo Vocal Desandann joined Bunnett for 2008’s Embracing Voices, which brought a second Juno in the same category.
The 2011 Alma Records pairing with Durán produced Cuban Rhapsody. Subsequent activity united the woodwindist with Linus Entertainment and the all-female Cuban jazz ensemble Maqueque for three albums: Jane Bunnett & Maqueque in 2014, Oddara in 2016, and the 2019 long-player On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme, the last of which reached number eight and entered the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
