Performers

Jane Bunnett’s Carnavalissimo (Ontario) with Puppets by Jerrard Smith & Natalie Axon (Ontario)

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Guelph Jazz Festival, a long-time friend and regular performer, saxophonist Jane Bunnett, has assembled an Afro-Cuban street party that she calls “Carnavalissimo.” Featuring a parade, dance, music, and more, the spectacle will extend the festivities at the Upper Wyndham Street Jazz Tent well into Saturday night for the first time in the Festival’s history.

As a soprano saxophonist and flutist, Bunnett is one of Canada’s most accomplished jazz performers. While she has performed in countless styles and contexts, Bunnett has been committed to exploring the inexhaustible depths of Cuban music for many years, most notably with her joyous Spirits of Havana band, which played the Festival back in 2000.

For Carnavalissimo, Bunnett has partnered with award-winning designer, mask maker, and puppet maker, Jerrard Smith, and co-creator, Natalie Axon. Smith, a faculty member in the Drama Department at the University of Guelph, has a lengthy history of collaboration, in particular on many of the beautifully outlandish productions by acclaimed composer and sound ecologist, R. Murray Schafer. Smith’s work, while certainly playful, draws on the source material and images of mythology and folklore, and will cast the festivities within a dreamlike and mystical history that, along with the irrepressible music of Jane Bunnett and Company, will make Carnavalissimo magical.

Website:

www.janebunnett.com