Borrowing a bit of Cuban spirit

Latin jazz wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when Jane Bunnett led her Spirits of Havana on stage Thursday night at the Jazz Bakery. Her blond hair in pigtails, an engaging smile on her face, the soprano saxophonist and flutist looked more like a gallery docent than a richly experienced practitioner of Afro Cuban jazz.

But that’s exactly what Bunnett is.

As Canadians, Bunnett and her husband and musical partner, trumpeter Larry Cramer, are unencumbered by the travel restrictions that minimize contact between U.S. and Cuban musicians. They have made more than 40 visits to the Caribbean nation over the last 15 years. Well before Ry Cooder got together with the Buena Vista Social Club, the couple, who first went to Havana as tourists, had begun making regular visits, rehearsing with Cuban musicians and bringing many to North America to perform with their group.

Bunnett jokes, in fact, that she is not “Castro’s favorite poster girl,” since so many of the players she has taken to Canada for short-term visits have elected not to return to Cuba.

Pianist David Virelles, part of the current Spirits of Havana, is a good example.

“He was 14 when we first found him,” Bunnett recalls. “He’d only heard a few American recordings -- Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk -- but he’d already absorbed those styles, and of course the Cuban rhythms were completely natural for him.”

Bunnett and Cramer took the young pianist into their home, where he has lived for the last two years.

Halfway through Thursday’s set, Virelles took advantage of a lengthy solo to display the versatility Bunnett describes. Shifting easily from precisely articulated bop harmonies to roiling tumbao rhythms, he constructs a chorus delineating the extraordinary scope and breadth of his talent. He’s clearly an important young artist in the making.

The intimate connections Bunnett and Cramer have made with Cuban musicians are colorfully illustrated in the DVD “Cuban Odyssey: Spirits of Havana.” Warm, quasi-familial connections course through the documentary, which illustrates the extent to which the pair has been accepted into musical communities from Havana to Matanzas and Camaguey.

Giving back as much as they have received, Bunnett and Cramer have made a practice of taking musical instruments to under-equipped music schools. And in their most recent visits, they have brought along technicians to repair and service worn-out flutes, trumpets, saxophones, etc.

Bunnett insists that her efforts are small compared to the rewards she and Cramer have received.

“Music is everywhere in Cuba,” she says. “And we’ve been privileged to become a part of the way the music is made -- like a family event, with everyone laughing, talking, enjoying themselves.”

That quality marked the set at the Jazz Bakery. On one tune, conguero Jesus Diaz encouraged the audience to sing along in a Spanish-language call and response, creating the sort of loose musical encounter that is frequently documented in the DVD. In the final number, a vigorously rhythmic son montuno, the music broke out into a jam session, with flutist John Calloway joining in the climactic closing.

Throughout the set, Bunnett’s playing was the catalyst. She kicked the evening up to speed early with a stunning cadenza. Moving from warm-toned arpeggios and brisk little melodic ornamentations to rapid note flurries and passionate excursions into her top register, she laid out the pattern for the eclectic music that followed.

As the set progressed, Virelles, Diaz, Cramer, drummer Francisco Mala and Bulgarian bassist Petar Slavov joined the fray. Tossing ideas back and forth as the rhythms diversified, they transitioned seamlessly from straight-ahead jazz grooves to the effervescent beat of son montunos.

When Bunnett wasn’t leading the way musically, she played the role of amiable facilitator, with musicians taking their turns in the spotlight. At her side, Cramer joined her in melody lines, sometimes in unison, sometimes in close harmony. His outgoing ebullience contrasting with Bunnett’s gentle reserve, Cramer balanced his brief solo moments with arm-waving high spirits and animated participation in the ensemble’s vocal passages.

The music reached from traditional Cuban melodies to Bunnett originals such as “Francisco’s Dream” (dedicated to the great percussionist Poncho Quinto) and “Santos Suarez.” In each, a feeling of musical authenticity simmered through the rhythms and vocals (mostly provided by Diaz and Mala), with Bunnett and Cramer skimming their bebop-tinged improvisations across multi-layered levels of percussion.

Even after the evening’s last note had faded, Bunnett wasn’t finished with the music. Ever eager to talk about her fascination with the rhythms of Cuba, she met a line of well-wishers, signing autographs and offering anecdotes about her trips to the island.

When one audience member introduced his young daughter, explaining that she, too, is a flutist, Bunnett grabbed her own instrument and instructed the girl in the proper embouchure for playing high notes.

Asked about the mini-lesson afterward, Bunnett smiled and shrugged.

“I was just doing what all the musicians in Cuba do,” she said. “Sharing what I know, trying to offer some help. It’s a practice that cold Canadians like Larry and I have learned from the warm, warm Cubans.”

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Jane Bunnett & the Spirits of Havana

Where: The Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., L.A.

When: Tonight-Sunday, 8 and 9:30

Price: $25

Contact: (310) 271-9039