AllMovie

Jane Bunnett is an acclaimed jazz musician from Canada who, along with her husband and fellow jazz artist Larry Cramer, has embraced the diverse rhythmic and stylistic influences of Cuban jazz, and has made a number of trips to Havana to record with some of the island's finest musicians. Filmmakers Bay Weyman and Luis O. Garcia joined Bunnett and Cramer as they traveled to Cuba for a five-week recording project, and the documentary Spirits of Havana was the result. In addition to recording with Cuban master musicians (who are sometimes challenged by their free-influenced style), Bunnett and Cramer also seek to preserve the sounds of the Old Guard of Cuban jazz on tape, as well as raising funds to replace battered instruments and equipment in the nation's seriously under-funded musical conservatories. Produced with the cooperation of the National Film Board of Canada, Spirits of Havana was screened at the 2001 Los Angeles Latino Film Festival.