Tuck & Patti play it from the heart

"Play it from the heart. Love, Tuck & Patti."

That’s what Tuck Andress wrote on about a dozen or more guitars that came his way during their post-concert autograph session last weekend at the Meralco Theater.

Ask Aiza Seguerra, Barbie Almalbis (of Barbie’s Cradle), jazz guitar titan Aya Yuson, the Side A band, Hourglass guitarist Paolo Miguel and dozens of devout guitar aficionados who didn’t mind the hour-long wait just to get a chance to chat, have their photos taken with, and have the acclaimed jazz guitarist sign their treasured instruments.

"Are you sure you want me to write on this?" Tuck asked sheepishly upon seeing a mint jazz archtop.

One Tuck fanatic even took a photo of his and Tuck’s left hands held up, joined together at the palms, fingers outstretched — prompting Barbie to remark, "Uy, ano yan? Transfer of powers?"

There was even an impromptu jam session as a pretty teener sang Man In The Mirror with Barbie playing along on her guitar. Tuck and Patti were all smiles as they cheered on their newfound fans, whose friends were all busy capturing their cherished "Kodak moment" on their phonecams.

Rare are those artists who are as gracious and generous with their time as this real life couple was. Of this unusual quirk, Patti remarked, "We try as much as we can to spend time with them since they’re the people who are inspired by the music — which is very personal. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of them. And this happens everywhere we go and play, believe it or not." Tuck added, "As you can see, because of the kind of music we play, we end up attracting the sweetest people in the world."

As a raging storm swept through Manila last weekend, another quiet storm was brewing inside the Meralco Theater — drenching a spellbound audience in a torrent of jazz, blues and flamenco-inspired melodies.

It was well past 9 p.m. when Tuck and Patti strode casually onstage. Except for a floral arrangement atop a coffee table and a stool (which was never used), the stage looked pretty bare.

Even Tuck’s set-up was pretty sparse. He plugged his vintage Gibson L-5 straight into his floor console, which housed nothing more than a volume pedal with which he did his amazing volume swells for their Hendrix medley, Castles Made of Sand and Little Wing.

By the time they played the opening strains of the Beatles’ I Will and segued to Learning How To Fly, Comfort Me and majority of the cuts from their A Gift of Love and Chocolate Moments albums, the rains had subsided.

Patti Cathcart was a complete contrast to Tuck’s serious mien, her occasional spiels sounding more like haunting blues riffs than anything else. At one point, she even took off her high-heeled shoes and segued into her a cappella version of her "high-heeled blues" — or so she called it.

And when Patti made her way to the exit, guitar fans knew that their moment had come. Eyes were all glued on Tuck’s fingers as he played the intro riff to his most popular instrumental, Man In The Mirror — replete with the slapped harmonics, followed by the Carlos Santana composition, Europa.

Apparently, unlike his contemporaries who get miffed when people copy their technique, Tuck doesn’t seem to mind. "I don’t blame them because I’m fascinated by the technique, too. If they want to get all that finger independence and have the ability to improvise on top of it, then that’s a life-long challenge, but it’s really enjoyable to dig into that," he explains.

"The cool thing we ever get from someone is when they get the idea that they could become more of themselves by hearing us," adds the Tulsa, Oklahoma native. "It doesn’t have to be anything like we do, but as long as they dig into that, it’s okay. We even had heavy metal kids coming to us saying, ‘You gave us the idea that I could be a killer metal guitar player!’ Now, isn’t that thrilling?"

At close past midnight when the last fans had happily scampered away with their newly-autographed guitars and CDs, Tuck and Patti gladly sat down for an interview — never showing any signs of slack despite their long day.

The key ingredient in every Tuck and Patti performance? Just surrender.

"Surrender to the moment. Surrender to everything — your bad day, whatever it is — and just fall into the music and play," Patti concludes.