Female Spirit in Ascendence: Jane Bunnett & Maqueque

Since the early 1990s, Jane Bunnett has been performing with a rich cross section of master musicians from Cuba. All of them men. The soprano saxophonist and flutist observed that female musicians would not bring their instruments to jam sessions. Five years ago, Bunnett met a phenomenal young singer named Daymé Arceno, and together they hatched an idea for an all-women ensemble they called Maqueque.

On Thursday, March 28, over 300 people saw the latest incarnation of the sextet at Bowker Auditorium, as the UMass Fine Arts Center’s Magic Triangle Jazz Series continued its 30th anniversary season. Their three day residency included stops at the UMass Latinx Cultural Center, Gateway City Arts, Amherst Media and a private home in Northampton.

Maqueque means “the spirit of a young girl,” in Lucumi, an Afro-Cuban dialect, and this band of twenty-somethings: Joanna Mojoko, vocals; Mary Paz, congas & vocals; Dánae Olano, piano; Tailin Marrero, acoustic and electric bass and vocals; Yissy García, drums, along with the veteran Bunnett, brought energy and polish to 80 minutes of non-stop entertainment.

With one exception, the program featured originals by Bunnett, Olano, Garcia and Marrero. Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” was set at a simmer, which gave Mojoko free rein to bend the lyrics the way she wanted. Mojoko is from Zimbabwe, speaks no Spanish and is the newest member of the band. Those were all non-factors once we heard her voice and felt her presence.

It’s easy to see how this band has captured the imagination of both promoters and audiences. After all, hard-hitting, virtuosic all-female Latin bands are not common. Along with Garcia and Marrero, pianist Olano is a product of Cuba’s vaunted conservatory system, meaning she has tremendous technique and a strong musical foundation. She told UMass students during a class visit that musicians were forbidden from playing tumbao, son or any other Cuban music in the conservatory. She learned that outside of school.

Percussionist Mary Paz, who played congas, cajón and batá with precision and soul, learned her lessons outside of school. She was mentored by Oscar Valdés, one of the founders of the influential 1970s Cuban band, Irakere, but never formally studied music. When I asked her how she learned her art, her smart phone translator told me “autodidact.” Two months ago, she spoke no English; now she is on her way.

Bunnett has supported dozens of Cuban musicians over the years, opening her home in Toronto, dealing with visas and permits, and raising the profile of deserving artists. She has provided a great opportunity to the young musicians of Maqueque, who are playing major stages throughout Europe and North America, earning good money, making contacts and expanding their skills. The band’s success has also helped young Cuban female musicians aspire to a career in music.

The concert drew from both Maqueque releases, as well as from a third recording due in June. The band was tight and the writing strong. But listening to the recent re-release of Bunnett’s important 1990s-era work, Spirits of Havana, I wished the UMass performance had more directly referenced Cuban folkloric music and classic Cuban forms. I also would have loved to have heard from the band members. Perhaps they could have introduced their own compositions in Spanish. I love being in bi-lingual spaces, and besides, many in the audience spoke Spanish.

We did, of course, get to hear the voices of Olano, Paz, Marrero and Mojoko. Their singing was a highlight of the evening. There harmonies aligned the spine, and the playful trading of eights, fours and twos (bars) between Mojoko and Marrero (vocals) and Bunnett (saxophone), perfectly captured the essence of the band’s name. Marrero, by the way, was a formidable vocalist, and a rock-solid acoustic and electric bassist.

The level of talent on the stage was evident everywhere. Yissy Garcia was a powerhouse, a joyous force. She is, along with Olano, the longest tenured member of the band. Her charisma and style drew us in, and the riser on stage gave us a good vantage point to watch a talented young drummer in full flower.

Bunnett is, of course, a major voice on soprano and flute, and her discography is beyond impressive. She has constructed a successful career as a jazz performer and band leader; in today’s world, that is no mean achievement. Here’s to the continued evolution of Maqueque and more women with instruments in their hands.

Traveling Towards Connection: Wayfaring Stops in Northampton

What is music but a series of relationships? There is the relationship between the notes; the relationships between the band members; between audience and performer; between producer and artist; and between the music’s past and present. These relationships are not in perfect harmony all the time. Indeed, tension is a crucial element in generating drama and fostering growth. But when you are connected, to a practice, an idea, each other, all can thrive. Can we call it love?

James Falzone and Katie Ernst, who were touring the northeast as Wayfaring, have an affinity that generates a kind of kinship that brings people together. We were links on the chain as Wayfaring delighted an audience of 50 at the Parlor Room in Northampton as part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares on Thursday, March 14th.

Falzone, who made his name as an important clarinetist and scene builder in Chicago, is now Chair of Music at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Ernst, a generation younger than Falzone, is a Chicago bassist and vocalist of uncommon depth and sensitivity. Together they exuded warmth and melded genres to produce a sublime evening of music.

“Music schools have become very genre-focused,” Falzone told Earshot Jazz in 2017. “My observation about 21st-century music making is that most genres are obliterated as a working musician. I was performing Wayne Horvitz’s music the other night; you had to read, improvise, be able to play very classically oriented, be able to swing, and there were elements that were world music-esque where you had to play in a certain kind of groove. It asked the musicians to do an incredible variety of things… Jazz has always been an open container.”

Wayfaring, which takes its name from the beloved American folk song, ignored musical borders like birds disregard town lines. Folk music, church hymns, jazz, traditional American tunes, contemporary classical music all came and went without any flag waving.

Like their fantastic 2017 Allos Documents release, I Move, You Move, the concert began with the title composition, written by Ernst. It felt like a beautiful, Bach-like exercise, just voice and clarinet at first. The sound was clear, the piece simple, a warming up, their lines interweaving, then in unison. When Ernst’s bass enters, that third voice sounds rich and very welcome.

“One of the most austerely beautiful recordings of the year sounds very much like a balm for troubled times,” wrote Howard Reich, in The Chicago Tribune. “Elements of jazz, folk, pop, blues and other genres course through this work, but it’s the long-lined lyricism and pervasive warmth of the music-making that leave the deepest and most lasting impression.”

“This is My Hand,” written by Shara Nova, lead singer and songwriter of My Brightest Diamond, found Falzone on Shruti box, an Indian drone instrument, that he rigged to play with his foot. That freed him to play a Paiute flute. The piece felt like a prayer, like something that had been around for a long time.

Many of the songs had that timeless quality and an air of spiritual engagement. Not only the lovely renditions of blues and gospel staples “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” but Ernst’s yearning “Pressed in Books, Like Roses,” and Falzone’s “And Yet Hope.” They felt like calls to our higher selves. Beauty of such magnitude reminds us what is possible when we focus our skills and attention in the service of good. Sighs of appreciations could be heard in the crowd.

We say “the stars are aligned” when things work out; when vibrations line up. But it’s not just luck. James Falzone and Katie Ernst are individuals in alignment with the universe, in deep relationship with music, musicians and the rest of us.

They Got Game: Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double in Greenfield

Not long ago, Tomas Fujiwara wanted to take a break from bandleading. He just had a discouraging experience with a record label and needed respite from the headaches that come from trying to translate music into dollars. So, what did he do? He created Triple Double, an all-star, two-sided trio.

The sextet: Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver, drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, guitars, Ralph Alessi, trumpet and Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet, formed with a push from Ho Bynum.

“I had been thinking for a while about mirror trios,” Fujiwara told me after his March 13th Triple Double concert at Hawks & Reed. “I had a working trio with Ralph and Brandon, and I’ve been playing with Mary and Taylor for a long time. It all came together easily. I obviously don’t get much a of chance to work with drummers, but I knew I wanted to work with Gerald. He always makes every situation sound better. Taylor kept encouraging me to get it together.”

The eponymous recording on Firehouse 12 came out on CD in 2017 and featured the six musicians we heard in Greenfield. The vinyl release of that material (plus two extra tracks) was the impetus to create a tour that will also take them to Cambridge, New Haven, Pittsburgh and Lewisburg, PA.

Half the evening featured new compositions by Fujiwara. Two of the pieces debuted publicly last week at the Jazz Gallery, which serves as something of a New York home base for Fujiwara. The other piece, “Triple Double: Book 2/Song 1,” had its world premiere on Wednesday.

Fujiwara’s composition, “Diving For Quarters,” which began with a wonderful, out-of-time conversation between strings, built around a slow, slinky riff that reminded me of Leroy Jenkins’ “Looking For the Blues” (from Leroy Jenkins Live!) Although Halvorson and Seabrook were on opposite sides of the stage, they established a genuine rapport, bringing very different sounds and ideas to the table.

In the last half dozen years, Halvorson has been as ubiquitous in the Pioneer Valley as any non-local jazz artist. But this was my first time hearing Seabrook live. Give me more. He is one of the world’s leading avant-garde banjoists, and seemed utterly unbridled to any one style or approach. At one point he held a small cassette player to his pick-up, resulting in a series of unique, low-fi electronic effects. He has an avant-rock streak that dovetails nicely with a joie de vivre that lifts all boats. I’m looking forward to his next Jazz Shares visit in September with Ingrid Laubrock’s Quartet.

The two horn players also provided great contrast. Alessi’s full, rounded trumpet sound and Ho Bynum’s skittery cornet blasts were easily distinguished, and made for a complex mix of tart and sweet. Their dynamic put me in mind of a mature, rule-oriented older brother next to his impulsive younger sibling. Their plaintive, dirge-like intersecting on top of roiling drums and guitars on the epic “Love and Protest” was a highlight.

Seated at the back of the stage, the two drummers were hard to spot, but easy to hear. While it was not always possible to discern who was playing what, the resulting rumble provided energy and purpose to the proceedings.

Other than Cleaver, who told me he just sits and listens when the subject comes up, this is a band of basketball fanatics. Thus, “triple double” not only refers to three pairs of instrumentalists, but is a benchmark of basketball excellence: double figures in three categories (most commonly, points, rebounds and assists) in one game. Tomas Fujiwara, the biggest Celtic fan I know, serves as player, coach and general manager of Triple Double. He’s Kyrie Irving, Brad Stevens and Danny Ainge rolled into one. He assembled the crew, gave them their marching orders, and now leads by example from the bandstand. And his ensemble has better chemistry than this edition of the Celts. Not bad for a reluctant bandleader.