Search - Jane Bunnett :: Water Is Wide

First Rate Jazz

Russell Cashman | Vista, CA United States | 11/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album doesn't have the influences from Cuba and Brazil that is so typical of a lot of Bunnet's music. Instead the strongest influences here seem to be Bop and avant garde and most of the material sounds quite original. In anycase the material show cases Bunnet well on both flute and soprano sax and she is surely among the best practicioners of serious jazz on both instruments with a truly wonderful sound. She is well supported by Larry Cramer on trumpet and the other musicians as well. Besides the original material by Bunnet and Cramer, there are exceptionally effective renditions of 2 Monk standards that show Bunnet to particularly good effect on both her instruments. There is also an Ellington tune that Cramer and Bunnet seem to have a lot of fun on. This is one of the CDs I come back to again and again."

What she might've sounded like . . .

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 02/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . if Spirits of Havana hadn't struck such a chord. To these ears, it's quite a sound--a bit of George Adams in her flute playing, a definite taste of Steve Lacy (with whom she studied for a year in Paris) in her soprano sax, as well as the entirely attractive post-boppish bent of her own playing and compositional voice.As much as I love and appreciate her Afro-Cuban move, I almost wish she had pursued the musical direction displayed on this fine disc. Of course, she would've had to do it sans musical soul-mate pianist Don Pullen (with whom she had recorded three previous discs), who passed not long after these sessions. But what about his student, fellow countryman D. D. Jackson? Couldn't they have forged something together? Or would there've been too big or an ego conflict between these two rising stars of the Canadian jazz scene? There's likely some story there, but I don't know what it is. In any case she and husband-producer-collaborator Larry Cramer, himself a fine composer and trumpet player, have put together an entirely likable disc. Having assembled a band of estimable proportions (Pullen, piano; Billy Hart, drums; the great but largely unheard Kieran Overs, bass; plus Jeanne Lee and Sheila Jordan on a couple guest vocal spots), the two consistently deliver smartly rendered and slyly arranged standards and originals (three each from Bunnett and Cramer). An added bonus for me is to hear the great Don Pullen in a more conventional setting at the end of his life than he chose in his last recordings (with his African-Brazilian Connection and the Sacred Common Ground disc), fine as they are.I must admit that I'm entirely taken by this wonderful music. And though she ended up chosing a different musical path, this disc shows she also could've had a great career as one of the more forward-looking post-boppers."