麻豆传媒AV

"This will really be like nothing you have ever seen in the Battlefords before," says Battlefords Jazz Society director Laird Brittin.

Referring to the upcoming June 21 performance by Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, Brittin says, "We have never had a band like this perform at any of our stages before."

The performance of Afro-Cuban jazz is being presented by the Jazz Society and the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. The venue will be the Chapel Gallery.

Soprano saxophonist/flautist Bunnett is a four-time Juno Award Winner, a two-time Grammy nominee, and an Officer of the Order of Canada by virtue of her work as a jazz musician. She will perform in North Battleford with her new all-female sextet, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, as part of a summer festival tour with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Stratford.

Bunnett's website states she began digging deep into the music of Cuba during a trip there in 1982, and falling in love with its intricate folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythms, blending them with contemporary jazz sounds. It's an ongoing passion for her and her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer - in spite of the hair-pulling, painstaking work that goes into arranging tours with Cuban artists. Bunnett has been credited with introducing great Cuban musicians to North American audiences over the past couple of decades, including Dafnis Prieto, Yosvanny Terry, Pedrito Martínez and David Virelles. Her latest project is an assembly of all-star Cuban musicians, a sextet that includes herself and five extraordinary young women.

Jane Bunnett and Maqueque (pronounced Mah-keh-keh), will follow their Canadian tour with a U.S. tour, if all goes well with organizing the appropriate visas. Maqueque band members are Bunnett on flute and soprano sax, virtuoso drummer Yissy García, dynamic percussionist and vocalist Daymé Arceno, Yusa on tres guitar and fretless bass, pianist Danae and Magdelys on batás and congas.

Tickets are available at Bee'J's as well as Nufloors. Tickets are $25 ($20 for members). The show starts at 8 p.m. and the doors open at 7:30 p.m.