 We're continuing our conversation with Soprano saxophonist and flutist Jane Bounette, who is performing in Amherst with her band Maquique. My name is Glenn Siegel. I'm the Founding Director of the Magic Triangle Jazz Series, part of the Fine Arts Center at UMass, and we are happy to be producing Jane's show at Bowker Auditorium. Jane, we were just starting to talk about Maquique, and it's such a special project and has really started to get its legs, so to speak, five years into this project. Explain a little bit about how it formed and what it is. What does Maquique, and what does Maquique mean? Okay, good. Well, Maquique, in the Afro-Cuban dialect, translates to fiery energy and spirit of a little girl. There was five names when I was forming the group that die me, Aerosena, who helped me put the group together. Her grandmother is a practitioner in the Afro-Cuban religion, and so she has a lot of knowledge of that particular dialect that's used, which is called Lukumi. And she gave me five names, and that one just jumped out at me to choose from, that she thought would be work for an all-female ensemble. I asked her, what does Maquique mean? And she said, that, and I said, that's the name. Perfect. So when I formed the group, it came about because for 25-odd years, maybe longer, I have co-run a group with my husband Larry Kramer called Spirits of Havana, which was founded in 1990 with our first recording that we did in Cuba. And I've had many really stellar musicians come through when they were, you know, very early on in their careers. One was Daphne Pareto, 17, 18 years old. Diego Svante Terry was in the group for a bit. Junior Terry, Davi Vareles, Pedro Martinez. There's a long list, Larry O'Duran, Carlitos de Puerto, and they all have their own bands now and are doing terrifically well. And I was the only woman in the group pretty much outside of the first recording that we did with Mercedes Valdez, who was the elder, of course, in the ensemble. And through our travels and work in the conservatories that we have been doing for many years in Cuba, I kept meeting young women that get pretty much 15 years of musical training, but they do not, once they finish their conservatory years, a lot of them just stop playing. And they might teach, but a lot of them don't go on to performing. And that was kind of discouraging. I would be at a jam session and try it to get the students, you know, that later that afternoon, you know, I'd been hanging out with and playing with, and they wouldn't have brought their instrument to the jam session. And I just, I kept talking about it with Larry and it's like, why don't I let them play? You know, I'm the only one who's up there playing. And I know it's hard, you know, because you're kind of, the guys are kind of like, you know, they're a bit macho down there. Macho everywhere, actually. And so you have to hold your own. But, you know, they weren't being encouraged. And so I was actually kind of at a little bit of a stall in my, you know, as a musician, you often plateau and don't, what am I going to do next? I've just done this record. I've just done that record. I've just done this tour. So I was kind of at a standstill and I met Dymie, Aerosena, and Cuba. And I invited her to come and play with me at something that I'd organized. And she was phenomenal. And she was, you know, 17 years, 18 years old. And later I brought her back to, I brought her to Toronto to do a show with me. She brought the house down and that's when the seed was planted. More so by Larry said, well, maybe you should try and organize something with Dymie. We'll go to Cuba and we'll pick out the girls that we want and we'll form something and this will be the next project. And so it was sort of done as a one-off. I did not expect to really, this thing to continue, but we made our first record, which was a very difficult record to make. And I didn't have a lot of faith in the project. I was really just at this point in my career, really, I guess at a low point, you know. I've had a few of those where it's just like, how much longer can I keep doing this, doing the paperwork for tours, doing the recordings? What does this all mean? It doesn't mean anything. Does anybody really care? And the record got very well received and on a kind of a whim, I sent it out across Canada to see if we could make a tour of the group and we got accepted to many of the jazz festivals. And so that year we made our first tour and then thought, well, the next thing is, let's see if we can try and get into the U.S. And that's where it really took off. I think our first tour in the U.S. the group was really well received and, you know, sent a message that people responded to. The girls are all very high-energy, creative women and the fact that this was always important to me that there was a vocal component to the group because I had made a record with a wonderful acapella group in Camigüey, Cuba called Grupo Vocal Descendants, called Embracing Voices. And I really loved working with the voice. It's always kind of a frustrated singer. I wish I could sing, I can't. But I wanted to have a vocal component, so five of the girls sang besides playing their instruments really well. And that became a part of the sound of mekeke. So we've just continued to keep doing that and, you know, trying to get more opportunities to play as a group and more, you know, exposure. And now we're starting to get some recognition and just finished our third recording. So great. We're looking forward to that. That's coming out in the summer. It will be coming out in June. Mm-hmm. Great. And at this point, five years into the project, you've had a couple of women who have been with you for quite some time and then others who sort of circulate in and out. So how does the recruitment process go? And are you confident that you can find players of that caliber to continue the project? I think so. You know, often I try and sort of keep my eye on Facebook and see the names that are like people that are working away. I know nowadays in some ways it's really, it's much harder nowadays to establish a, I hate to use the word career, but establish yourself as an artist because there's so much out there. And there's a lot of stuff that's not very good, but there's still a lot of really interesting, a lot of people doing really interesting things. And if you kind of keep your feelers out there and, for example, we're playing Boston in a couple of days. And so I've invited some of the women that I know that are in the Berkeley program to come to our show. And I have met some musicians in that manner that have gravitated towards us and say, I want to play with you guys. And I said, OK, give me your car. I'll keep you in mind because you never know. And happened with a young drummer named, she's from the Dominican Republic. Her name's Ivana Desuede. And she filled in for Yesi, because Yesi got hired by Dave Matthews' band to go do something. And I was like, hey, Dave, get that, go for it. And, but just let me get another drummer. And I was able to get her. And she just, she just fit in so beautifully. So trying to constantly just be always keeping your feelers out for, to be able to extend an opportunity to somebody that's, you know, might give them a boost in some way to get out there. Yeah, yeah. And tell me about the dynamics of being in an all women band. Have you noticed? And I should say it's not only that it's an all women band, but they're all of a different generation than you. Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Thanks, Colleen. Yes, they are. I mean, I could old enough to be maybe even their grandmothers. No, but yeah, they're all, you know, in their 20s. And it's interesting for me because it does, you know, I have to keep up my energy. Sometimes I surprise myself, but they're really tired. And I'm the one with the energy that day. But we all, we all work really hard. And they all just give 100%. You know, when we hit the bandstand, there's just a feeling of all of them, just they're so focused and they're so good. And they love it. And the opportunity, we, every single concert we get, if it's, you know, if it's like 30,000 or if it's 30 people, you know, we try and just give it everything we have. Because you just, you know, you are representing the music. The music is that important. And you have your own pride, you know, as a musician, to always give it your best. So, yeah. And I'm curious about this idea. Cuba has great music conservatories. And at some of the events yesterday, the women were talking about not being allowed to play their music, their own cultural Afro-Cuban music in the conservatories, which were European dominated. And then on the street is all this other life. And so I'm just wondering about that, you know, very stark dichotomy. It's almost like two sides that don't mix. Yeah. Well, that's interesting. Because in some ways, because the government has organized support for certain things, certain things prosper and other things not so much. But they still, you know, I think this kind of happens everywhere, but it happens more in Cuba just because the support that certain musical institutions have been granted because of the history of their, of the Cuban pride. And what the, when Fidel did come into power of how he, you know, made a shift in supporting the more African aspect of Cuba. So that happened with, you know, groups like the Los Monquitos and a rumba group that would have never been given the acknowledgement of the government that this music is important and not a marginalized music. But when those things happen, they're, they put, it's almost like to put in rules and then the next bunch of rules have to be broken again, right? So that's sort of, that's sort of how things are right now. Cuban psyches is so strong that things will, things will always prevail because Cubans are inventors. They're constantly, if the car doesn't work, they will invent something to make that car, you know, get on the road and go, all kinds of things, you know, like that. And, and same with, with the music, but they're the frustrations. And just the way that's one of the reasons for starting McKecke because, you know, the performance opportunities in Cuba are even difficult for the male musicians. And the male musicians gobble up, you know, the musicians that are, the people that are always well known tend, tend to get the support. And the people not, that aren't so well known, not so much. And this is always a fight everywhere, you know, that's always the top ten, you know. North America, same deal, right? These are the top ten writers. These are the top ten this. And there's always going to be somebody who's not on that list who's like, this guy's amazing. Why is he not on the top ten list, right? So, but this is, this is a frustration, especially our piano player mentioned that because she wants to pursue more of the great Cuban composers. And even though they're talked about in Cuba, La Quana, Cervantes, they're, they're not, you know, in the, in the schools, they're pushing Rimsky-Korsakov and they're pushing Brahms and they're pushing those things, not as much as their own, because that's the way the, the institution has been set up. Yeah, and that was partly because a lot of the teachers that they brought were from Europe that came at one point to, to teach in, in the schools. A lot of Eastern European, you know, when, when they were with Russia, a lot of Russian musicians came to teach in the conservatory. So that was pushed. Well, certainly, I mean, the level of musicianship in the typical Cuban musician is off the charts. Yeah, it's, it's in the DNA. I mean, it's, it's a complicated, you know, the more I keep thinking that I understand the Cuban psyche, the more I keep saying, I don't. It's a paradox, truly. Yeah. And can you discuss a little bit the role of politics in a Cuban politics, which, you know, so people have such strong opinions about, especially when you travel to Miami or when you're in Cuba, like how do people think about the revolution and, you know. Well, that is changing. That's something I've really observed and I don't go to Miami a lot, but I know with the younger people now that a lot of them have left Cuba. A lot of them now are going back and forth to Cuba. A lot of people living outside of Cuba are supporting businesses in Cuba, like private paladars, you know, the restaurants, setting their relatives up in, in with what they call Casa Peticulars, which are B&Bs, or they might be doing Air B&B too. There's a lot of money coming from Cubans outside of the country back into investing in there. So that was something that you never, you didn't see that 20 years ago. So that's a big change. And within the dynamics, within the band, around politics, people have different opinions. No, they're pretty much all on the same page. Yeah. Even though, for example, one of the musicians is living with Larry and I, partly because she needs to be more exposed to the resources musically that we are able to give her right now, because she's advancing so quickly in terms of her technique and everything, like just where she's gone in one year of living in our house. And that's not to say that she can't learn stuff in Cuba, but there's resources that you can't get, like materials and recordings and all the things that you need to grow as a musician. And so she does go back to Cuba, but she's living with us at this time. A few of the other girls, they're still very connected to family there. And they go out on tour, they go back with some money. And that money can really stretch them for a while and sustain them. Because if you're smart in Cuba, you know how to work the system. But it's very, very difficult. There's still the rations. There's still shortages of lining up for toothpaste. These very simple necessities that we take for granted and go to the dollar store and buy a tube of toothpaste for 79 cents, they're lining up at some place because that particular store that day has got toothpaste in. And you're going to pay five bucks for a tube of toothpaste. That's a lot of money. That's like a quarter of somebody's salary, possibly. Well, we're starting to run out of time, but I did want to ask you about future projects and musical life beyond macaque. Musical life beyond macaque. Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm so open to working with so many musicians. Like I love, I mean, as much as I love Cuban music, I love all kinds of music. And I've had the opportunities to work with some Brazilian musicians and some African musicians, some great modern people that are right out there developing their incredible own sound. I just try to be as open as I can to what's happening, but still try to keep focus on the projects that I'm trying to keep on the table. So that's really hard to say what could happen. One of the things I'd love to try and do is, and it'll be a big project, but a big band with all women. And they might not all be Cuban. There might be some special guests that are out there, but it'll still have a Cuban. It'll still have that Cuban rhythmic thing happening, Afro-Cuban rhythmic thing. OK. That's what I like to do. You're getting a big band off the ground. Dang, I know, I know. Are you crazy? Although I must say, being a Canadian, you have advantages that American musicians don't have access to. I do. And I would be reaching out to a lot of women in the US, I think, that are out there doing some pretty amazing things to be a part of it. So I would see it as a real global band, a big band. Great, great. Well, Jane Bounette, it's been a real pleasure to speak with you and looking forward to your concert tonight. Me too. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you.