Bunnett, Spirits of Havana Link Genres

The alliance between jazz and Cuban music, despite the many successful connections that have taken place, has always contained implicit difficulties, mostly associated with rhythm. For one thing, the Cuban clave, the repeated metric pattern that is the organizing center for layers of complex rhythms, functions quite differently from the highly centered groove pocket that is the root source of jazz swing.

The partnership of artists such as Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo and bebop icon Dizzy Gillespie discovered many of the paths toward common ground between the two perceptions of rhythm, often with spectacular results. But much of the so-called Afro-Cuban jazz that followed failed to find a blending, instead alternating clave-oriented passages with straight-ahead jazz rhythms (seasoned by the sounds of congas and timbales).

Which is one of the reasons why it was a pleasure to hear Jane Bunnett’s Spirits of Havana on Tuesday night at the Jazz Bakery. As much as anyone currently exploring the linkages between the two genres, the Canadian-born Bunnett has vigorously attempted to maintain the integrity of each while revealing their very real commonalities.

Her efforts--and the efforts of the ensemble she leads with her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer--were especially fascinating in the opening-night performance. In part, because of the high quotient of original material, all of it contained in a new Blue Note album, “Ritmo + Soul.” But especially because every member of the Cuban/North American group, which has performed together for years (nearly a decade for Cuban pianist Hilario Duran and percussionist Pancho Quinto), was so precisely integrated into the richly woven tapestry of the music.

Among the many high points: Duran’s rhapsodic, Chucho Valdes-inspired piano work, especially on the piece “Joyful Noise”; the vocalizing of percussionist Ernesto “Gato” Gatell; the three-bata drumming on the traditional “Drume Negrita”; the stirring rhythmic undercurrent generated by Gatell, the veteran Quinto, drummer Dafnis Rodrigues and bassist Roberto Occhipinti. And, above all, the superb soloing of Bunnett. In the midst of this smoothly integrated collective, her flute and soprano saxophone work poured out additional riches, with her flute playing in particular the product of a world-class jazz imagination.

The one element that seemed a bit out of sync with the balance of the music was the soul-styled singing of Dean Bowman. Despite his obvious gifts for improvising in a style reminiscent of Leon Thomas (complete with yodeling passages), his presence in the ensemble was most effective when he was simply adding vocal timbres to the instrumental lines or supplementing the various Cuban chants.

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Jane Bunnett and Spirits of Havana at the Jazz Bakery through Sunday. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. (310) 271-9039. $20 admission tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., and Sunday at 7 and 8:30 p.m.