Sound Xcape album launch at The Podium

MANILA, Philippines - Last Tuesday, The Podium, XFM 92.3 in cooperation with Aruba Bar indulged shoppers with 15 tracks from the album Sound Xcape.

The album includes tracks from Jamie Cullum, Stacey Kent, Monica Vasconcelos, and Nois Oferenda as well as homegrown talents Aya Yuson, Mishka Adams, Skarlet, and Mon David. Sound Xcape was launched with live performances from Skarlet and Aya.

Best known for her spunky stage presence, stylish get-up, and signature vocal flair as frontwoman for Put3ska, Skarlet, then known as Myra became synonymous with the band’s infectious, upbeat theme, Manila Girl. The ‘90s saw the height of Myra’s popularity with the band. It was enhanced when she evolved into Skarlet, the wild child and femme fatale vocalist of the Neo-Bigband/Swing Band, The BrownBeat Allstars.

Aya, on the other hand, gets a kick-off from Coltrane, as well as all things sacred and profane. It’s that same reverence for the jazz idiom — coupled with a healthy dose of irony and wry humor — that shines in his recently released all-instrumental album Solo.

Solo glistens like a polished gem — taking off from where Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Tuck Andress, and other jazz guitar titans left off. With traditional jazz standards as his medium, Aya does a high wire act as he navigates through knuckle busting changes while juggling single note runs, piano-like chord voicings, and walking bass lines over a steady groove.

“My basic concept for this CD was to take the most mediocre tunes and through jazz alchemy, make them great to listen to,” Aya explains. With the same levity and eloquence that permeates his playing “there’s no such thing as a kitschy tune, but there is such thing as a kitschy musician. So, I set out to prove it. The second reason was that it was meant as a Velentine’s gift for someone, but that relationship did not work out either. Because of that, it’s actually the most heartfelt thing I’ve ever laid down on tape, so to speak,” he adds.