Black Atlantic:
Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
Cuba/Canada &
Ballaké Sissoko
Mali
Saturday, March 27, 2021 | 8:00 pm
Note: Due to complications relating to the COVID pandemic, the trio of artists that comprise 3MA were not able to travel between their respective countries to record a virtual performance as originally intended.
Instead, Duke Performances’ March 27th Black Atlantic presentation will feature a solo performance by 3MA member Ballaké Sissoko. Jane Bunnett & Maqueque’s performance film, featuring artists recorded in Canada and Cuba, will be presented as scheduled.
We look forward to welcoming all members of 3MA to perform live in Durham as soon as possible!
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Duke Performances is excited to present our Virtual season – The Show Must Go Online! High-quality, commissioned films featuring artists originally slated for in-person performances will premiere on Vimeo for ticket holders. Each film, shot following local safety protocols, is made in collaboration with an audio and video crew in each artist’s home city.
General admission tickets are $10 per presentation and Duke Student tickets are available free of charge through the support of the Provost and the Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University. The ‘Black Atlantic’ package — which is available at a discount of 25% off for $22.50 — provides access to all three ‘Black Atlantic’ double feature presentations, including performances by Okaidja Afroso & Lakou Mizik, Natu Camara & Edmar Castañeda, and Jane Bunnett and Maqueque & 3MA. Tickets go off sale at 8 PM ET on the day of the presentation. Ticket buyers will receive a unique Vimeo link to watch the presentation online from the Duke University Box Office before the listed start time. Films will be available for viewing for 72 hours.
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Hailing from Canada and Cuba, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque offer a refreshing perspective to the world of jazz, grounded in cross-cultural collaboration, formidable artistry, and the celebration of Afro-Cuban culture.
Bunnet, a 5-time JUNO Award-winning saxophonist, made her first trip to Cuba in 1982. Since then, she has spent her career studying and honoring Afro-Cuban music — but, as she came to realize five years ago, mostly in the company of men.
In 2013, Bunnett journeyede to Cuba to seek out and collaborate with rising Afro-Cuban women artists. Quickly, she found Joanna Tendai Majoko, Yissy García, Jane Bunnett, Tailin Marrero Zamora, Dánae Olano, MaryPaz Fernández, and their new group, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque formed.
“Maqueque” means “fiery energy of a little girl” in the Lucumi language, a liturgical language of Santería in Cuba. It is the perfect moniker for this group of fiercely skilled women who not only dominate on their respective instruments, but maneuver the style’s complex rhythmic syncopation and harmonic intricacies with enviable ease, joy, and heat.
— Alexa Peters
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3MA’s eponymous debut marked the emergence of a heartening musical friendship between preeminent chamber virtuosi. Synthesizing the first syllable of their respective homelands, Ballaké Sissoko (Malian), Driss El Maloumi (Maroc; Morocco in French), and Rajery (Madagascar), the prodigious ensemble weaves grand melodic tapestries through an airy commingling of the kora, oud, and valiha. Marveled as transcendent soloists, each player is an exponent of emblematic stringed sound machines that preceded the guitar. Over a decade since beginning their music playing exploration, the threesome’s singular and shared journeys have spanned the cultural effects of the slave trade to music as connective tissue — birthing new and reimagined ideas during globetrotting exhibitions of their agile fingerpicking and intricate strumming. Triangulated on stage, 3MA amble dexterously and deferentially between lead melodies and crisscrossing pulses — inviting audiences to revel in the poetic discourse of their pan-African symbiosis.
— King Kenney
