Grupo Vocal Desandann

with Jane Bunnett

At Glenn Gould Studio

in Toronto

Check out any Cuban music primer and it will naturally include such forms as son, rumba, guajira and bolero. But you likely won't find Haitian choral music. At least, not until now.

The members of Grupo Vocal Desandann are the music's leading emissaries, and with a featured spot in the National Film Board documentary, Spirits of Havana, and performances like their current gig in Toronto -- which began with a Glenn Gould Studio show last Tuesday and wraps up tonight at St. George the Martyr Church -- some of this Cuban "minority-culture" music is starting to receive its rightful due.

That's something the 10-piece choral group and their supporters have had to fight for, with previous tours cancelled due to U.S. visa policies, and in the spring of 2001, a lawsuit initiated by Miami arts activists against their fair city's efforts to prevent a Desandann performance.

Haitian Cubans are no more exempt from the vagaries of politics than anyone else and have their own difficult history to boot, one that includes a legacy of discrimination and suppression of the Creole language at the core of Haitian-Cuban culture. Desandann, whose members are second and third generation (the first wave of Haitian immigrants came to Cuba as slaves of the French fleeing the Haitian revolution in the late 1790s), can and do sing in English, French and Spanish, but mostly in the Creole that marvelously blends the three. The songs they apply it to are both folkloric and popular, from sober spirituals to sensuous dance numbers. Last Tuesday, they did all that and more.

The "more" began with a collaboration with the evening's first act, a sophisticated Latin jazz trio led by pianist Hilario Duran. Duran, a Cuban living in Toronto, arranged two pieces to include Desandann and sax/flute player Jane Bunnett. The resulting hybrid of traditional Haitian song, chant and jazz at times struggled to find a comfortable balance, but at other moments soared.

Still, it was the concert's second half, devoted to Desandann, with occasional and lovely contributions by Bunnett, that allowed the full weight of the group's talents to come to the fore. The double-breasted blue suits worn pre-intermission were traded for garments of saffron yellow and earthy russets, and the music was like an aural reflection of that burst of colour.

Desandann wouldn't be amiss at any choral festival the world over, with vocal talents both folk and operatic, beautifully layered harmonies, and strong and distinct soloists. A song such as Maroule, with its soaring lead line, tumbling women's voices and near doo-wop male parts, was sublime.

And the unexpected playful encore at the end of the evening was, true to its English name, Unforgettable.
Jane Bunnett and Grupo Vocal Desandann perform at St. George the Martyr Church (197 John St., Toronto) tonight. For information: 416-204-1080.