With International Jazz Day being marked around the globe on April 30, Peterborough’s annual celebration of the music genre promises to be second to none.
That’s due mostly in part to Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, an internationally renowned Grammy award-nominated act that will headline a full slate of jazz music events in Peterborough with a concert at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre on Friday, April 26th.
As designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), April 30 was first designated International Jazz Day in 2011. Marked each year since, the day’s aim is to highlight jazz and “its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe.”
With iconic jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock again serving as the day’s Goodwill Ambassador, more than 190 countries will join the party by hosting jazz concerts and genre related events.
The Peterborough celebration marks the eighth year the day has been marked locally. According to organizing committee member Joe Grant, there are two distinct audiences in sight: those who are already fans of the genre, and those seeking a first-time taste.
“This is geared towards people to get out there and experience live jazz,” says Grant, a Peterborough lawyer whose firm, LLF Lawyers, is one of several sponsors of events marking the day.
“If you never have, it’s a much different experience than listening to something you might hear on an elevator,” Grant points out. “If you think that that’s jazz, it’s certainly isn’t. Experiencing something live and seeing artists of the calibre that we’re bringing in — seeing them play their instruments and improvise — that takes you to a higher realm that you probably haven’t experienced with another kind of music.”
For his part, Grant remembers how he became a gradual convert to the genre.
“It was all ’90s rock when I cut my teeth,” he recalls. “Jazz was something I came to, thinking maybe I should try to cultivate an interest in it. Listening to recorded music didn’t really catch me but once I experienced a live event, that’s when the tables completely turned. It caught me on another level that other music didn’t seem to.”
“One of the coolest things I ever saw was a (jazz) trio. They played, trading off the bass, drums, and piano. They played like they’d been playing for ten years together. Turns out that was the first time they played together. They didn’t even speak the same language, but they certainly knew the same language when it came to jazz. They communicated on another level and it was something very special to see.”
While Bunnett and Maqueque’s April 26th appearance at Market Hall — with Peterborough’s own Rob Phillips and Carling Stephen opening — is the main event, it’s not the only jazz music-related event planned.
The following day (Saturday, April 27th) will see Dine With Jazz provide the chance to enjoy a great meal at any one of four restaurants, each hosting musical duos from 5 to 8 p.m. as follows:
- Pete Woolidge and Mark Davidson at The El (P) (380 George Street North, 705-750-0000)
- Michael Monis and Paco Luviano at Agave By Imperial (376 George Street North, 705-741-5551)
- Victoria Yeh and Mike Graham at Amandala’s (375 Water Street, 705-749-9090)
- Ginny Simonds and Craig Paterson at The Railyard Café (127 Hunter Street East, 705-745-5511)
Reservations are recommended for each restaurant.
Also on Saturday night from 9 p.m. to midnight, The Steve Holt Jazz Quartet — the Juno award-nominated pianist will be joined by Curtis Cronkwright on drums, Perry White on saxophone, and Duncan Hopkins on bass — will entertain at the Black Horse Pub at 452 George Street North.
There are also other jazz performances at local venues through April, which is National Jazz Appreciation Month.
“It’s great to see the arts community and the business community support each other,” enthuses Grant of the restaurants’ and pubs’ participation in International Jazz Day Peterborough.
But the big draw for International Jazz Day Peterborough is undoubtedly Jane Bunnett and Maqueque. This appearance marks a return to Market Hall for the five-time Juno Award recipient and her all-female band of Cuban musicians, who headlined at the same venue for International Jazz Day Peterborough back in 2019.
Speaking from the shores of Lake Saint Peter in Hastings Highlands, Bunnett agrees wholeheartedly with UNESCO’s position that jazz is a unifying music genre that defies borders while embracing multiple cultures.
“You can pretty much go anywhere in the world, be it China or India or wherever, and there’s an appreciation for the music,” she says.
VIDEO: “Dream” – Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
In forming Maqueque, Bunnett has put forth a much-heralded example of jazz’s appeal and growth internationally and, in this case, Cuba in particular.
“It was just really as a one-off,” says Bunnett of the project. “With Spirits of Havana with Larry (Bunnett’s husband and trumpet player Larry Cramer), I was the only female in that group for a good 30 years. We had a lot of young talent come through Spirits of Havana but they were always guys.”
“When we’d go to Cuba, playing mostly in conservatories, more than half of the students were women. When I was at a jam session or a club, I would see these young ladies sitting on the sidelines. They weren’t bringing their horns — they’d go ‘No, no, I’m happy my boyfriend is up there playing’. I’d say ‘Yeah, my boyfriend’s up here playing too, but that’s not stopping me from getting up and playing’.”
“Larry said ‘Stop talking about it and do something’. We went to Cuba and we sort of secretly looked for the right personnel to put together for what was to be a one-off project. Once together, we decided to put together a recording.”
That first album, 2014’s Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, told the saxophonist and flautist that she was onto a very good thing. It won a 2015 Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year. Better still, the album’s follow-up, 2016’s Oddara, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Two more albums have followed since: 2019’s On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme and Playing With Fire, released just last year.
If that’s not enough, Bunnett has brought Maqueque to numerous international stages and events, including celebrated jazz festivals in Monterey and Newport.
Speaking to the band’s still-growing popularity here in Canada, Bunnett reasons that there are a couple of factors at play.
“When Canadians starting going to Cuba for their vacations, a strong familiarity with Cuban music developed, just from people hearing it in the hotels,” she says.
“That, I think, tweaked people’s interest (in Cuban music) in Canada early on. But what we do is a little different, mixing jazz into it. With women (players), that became interesting; a realization that the women can really play.”
VIDEO: “Tomorrow” – Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
Echoing Grant, Bunnett says there are new fans waiting to be won over to the jazz genre.
“What we really need to do is try and broaden the appeal (and) get a younger demographic into the music,” she says, noting there was a time when jazz was generally referred to as “mouldy fig music.”
“If you look around sometimes at the audience for jazz, everybody is on the older side. What’s going to happen when that age group goes? We need to encourage younger people to enjoy the music.”
Jazz’s historical tendency to re-invent itself is a good thing in that regard, says Bunnett. In the meantime, securing audiences for her band’s high-energy and very danceable music is a never-ending mission.
“What you hope is you get the opportunities to go out and play and develop your sound,” she says. “Without those opportunities, it’s very hard to develop. It’s one thing to practice but if you can’t get out and get the response for your music, you really feel like you’re working within a vacuum.”
“We need the audience. Often the audience is really musically informed. If it’s not happening on the stage, they know it. They’re not dumb. They pick up on it, even more than the musicians do.”
In the meantime, Bunnett is enjoying what has been a life-changing journey, both personally and musically, with Maqueque.
“It’s not like I’m a Girl Guide leader or something like that,” she says. “I’m an artist that still feels like I’m trying to develop and play at the level my heroes played at. I’m happy to have players along for the ride, but it’s important to me to feel that they’re enjoying the journey and it’s not just a platform to the next thing they do.”
Tickets for Jane Bunnett and Maqueque’s 7:30 p.m. concert cost $36 for assigned cabaret table or regular seating and are available in person at the Market Hall box office (140 Charlotte St, Peterborough), by phone at 705-775-1503, or online at markethall.org.
Joining LLF Lawyers as sponsors of International Jazz Day Peterborough are We Design Group, Alterna Savings, and McCosh Private Wealth Management, with kawarthaNOW on board as the event’s media sponsor.
For more information about International Jazz Day Peterborough, as well as other events during Jazz Appreciation Month, visit internationaljazzdaypeterborough.wordpress.com.
To learn more about Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, visit www.janebunnett.com.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be the media sponsor of International Jazz Day Peterborough.
