It was worth the wait. Jane Bunnett was so sick Jan. 28 after being in bed for 10 days that she had to cancel her gig with her band Spirits of Havana in the Relaxed series at the Living Arts Centre.
"There was no possibility of playing. I tried but I couldn't blow a note," Bunnett remembered with laughter Friday night after she and her six-piece band more than made up for the disappointment of the earlier cancellation.
Before a sold-out crowd of just over 250, Bunnett and her crackerjack band had themselves a ball, even if their attempts to get the audience moving to the effervescent Afro-Cuban rhythms of the music fell a county or two short of success.
We, in the staid suburbs, don't do the mambo, don't ya know.
"Yeah, you guys are kind of laid back," Bunnett said later. "But the audience was very polite and responsive and it was fun."
Bunnett was excellent as expected, mostly on soprano, but the unexpected delight of the evening was the debut performance of Pablowski Rosales, a young Cuban who was making his first appearance with Jane's band. He is already a master of the tres guitar, which he soloed on several times, wringing a sweet but swinging sound out of the instrument that gets its name from the three courses of double or triple strings it employs.
This concert had a nice rolling, relaxed feel to it, much like the music. People wandered on and off the stage and everybody really enjoyed the others' playing.
How nice it was to see Port Credit's Kieran Overs in his own bassyard.
"I hate the term world-class because it's such a tacky phrase," said Bunnett post-concert. "But Kieran is world-class. He's just a great player."
Overs was that middle-aged white guy who just couldn't stop smiling as he traded vibes with the other young Cuban gunslingers in the rhythm section: David Virelles on piano, Jalidan Castro on congas and Frank Durand on drums.
P.S. I'm on vacation for the rest of the week.