**1/2 Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana

CHAMALONGO

(Blue Note)

Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnett is one of North America's most serious students of Afro-Cuban music, and her latest project shows how much she's learned. Now that she's recorded several albums with Cuban musicians, she plays like a resident on the distinctive clave beat that underlies the diverse forms of that country's music. On Chamalongo she essays an ambitiously wide range of those forms, working with the Cuban Folkloric All-Stars, the late, great singer Merceditas Valdes, the venerable percussionist Tata Guines, Cuban jazz pianists Hilario Duran and Frank Emilio, and fellow Canadian jazz trumpeter Larry Cramer.

Several tracks here are quite traditional -- but then there's Emilio's feature, "Descarga à la Hindemith," a modern classical-rhumba fusion pulled off with sophistication, fiery aplomb, and an utter lack of pretension. The explosive saxophone duet between Bunnett and young Cuban tenor firebrand Yosvanny Terry on "Freedom at Last" would sound at home in a New York loft, but underpinned by the rollicking percussion section, it rises to a higher level of excitement. Bunnett's marvelous soprano -- a fatter, warmer version of former teacher's Steve Lacy's piping intelligence -- weaves its way into the complex skein of percussion with grace. Little wonder that during Bunnett's solo on "Mondongo," vocalist Ernesto "El Gato" Gatell cries out "Beautiful!"

-- Ed Hazell