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For the ambitious Red Dragonfly (aka Tomba) album – out Tuesday (May 25) – Toronto’s Jane Bunnett shifts gears, swapping her flute for soprano saxophone and bringing in the Penderecki String Quartet to explore a broader range of rhythms, harmonies and melodies connected with the folkloric music of Appalachia, Quebec, Brazil, South Africa and Japan in addition to Cuba, which has been her primary focus for the past 14 years. It could easily have turned into a scattered mess, but Bunnett has never been a superficial dabbler, and this isn’t any sort of academic anthropology study. She goes deep and uses her inspiration to create something completely new in a contemporary jazz context, thanks in part to the stellar arrangements of David Virelles, Don Thompson and Hilario Duran. But it’s really the soulful restraint of Bunnett’s wonderfully lyrical playing that provides the perfect bridge between the ancient and modern. Jane Bunnett celebrates the release of Red Dragonfly with a two-night stand at Hugh’s Room June 8 and 9.
