Honoring the jazz masters

Honoring the Masters” was the tribute theme headlining the poster for the much-anticipated P.I. Jazzfest 2012, the seventh edition of the series of official concerts and informal gigs serving a nightly treat for jazz musicians and aficionados whenever February comes around, since 2005.

It’s a keepsake, too, this poster. The image it carries will remain cherished: a portrait of the late great Egay “Koyang” Avenir, jazz guitarist non pareil, who passed away last year. Koyang, who also used to be called the “Yoda” of Pinoy guitarists, was indeed a master.

Happy to hear form his former partner, Zeny Celdran, that efforts to collect Koyang’s music tapes for a CD album are almost ready to bear fruit, thanks to immense help from recording studio honcho, sound engineer and session bassist Louie Talan. Since most of the musical pieces are distinctive interpretations of Western songs, the album can’t go commercial, but will serve as another keepsake for Koyang’s countless friends and admirers, practically as a give-away.

His departure certainly took away from the potent quartet that’s been behind the P.I. Jazzfest all these years. Sandra Lim Viray, Jun Viray, and Zeny were left bereft, as most of us felt. But they plugged on, with help from Dudee Alfonso, and, likely inspired to do right by Koyang’s memory, managed to come up with the best edition yet of the annual cornucopia of terrific music. 

It all started on Feb. 11 with a program at Insular Life Auditorium billed as “Honoring the Maestro” — a tribute to classical and jazz legend Angel Matias Peña, 90, with performances by the A.M.P. Big Band conducted by the inimitable Mel Villena, plus the Kasilag Guitar Trio, Gina Medina, Jonathan Coo, Renato Lucas, Rommel Cruz, and Sheryl Ann de Dios, with a screening of a video docu by Collis Davis and Richie Quirino.

That same Saturday night, there was also Jazz at O Lounge at the Oxford Suites on P. Burgos St., Makati, with Better Than Sax and an open jam. And the fest was on, to last till the last day of February, appropriately enough a leap one.

Sorry to report that I missed out on a lot of the nightly gigs, having been out, and only caught up with the fest well into its last week. Thanks to Kathy Solis of ABS-CBN, an invite to the ABS-CBN Jazz Night featuring the main draw that was Acoustic Alchemy allowed for a special birthday date at the spiffy Newport Performing Arts Theatre at ResortsWorld Manila. A cocktail lounge awaited guests, too, where we could relax in between acts and help ourselves to fine food plus drinks (make mine brandy).

Also there was my son Aya, who’s been doing well enough on his physical rehab so that we may expect him to take up his good guitar again. What enthused him that night was the collective front act, starting with the Yaron Gottfried Trio from Israel, which did jazzed-up versions of classics such as Brahms pieces and Mussorgksy’s Pictures at an Exhibition.  

The Dave Eggar Trio and Deoro also impressed him, as well as the US-based, multi-talented Abe Lagrimas Jr. who played at such a high level with the “lowly” ukulele, before shifting to the vibraphone and ultimately the drums. Accompanying him were the venerable Tateng Katindig (who lights it up in LA with top-rated musicians) on piano and Roger Herrera on upright bass, together with Aya’s former bandmate (at Freedom Bar gigs) Mar Dizon, before the last graciously gave way for Abe to display his drum set chops.

Then came Charmaine Clamor, also California-based, svelte and silken-voiced, proponent of her “Jazzipino” sound. She has the distinction of being cited as “a gifted vocalist” by The New York Times and as “one of the important and original new jazz singers of the decade” by The Los Angeles Times.

A long-time fan of Acoustic Alchemy was our birthday lady that night, so that we had to say a final goodbye to the lounge bar. The Brit band has played here before, wowing crowds with the acoustic guitar’s potential through a gamut of musical styles, from jazz to folk to rock to world music. The group has evolved over the last 25 years, with its two original main guitarists, Nick Webb and Simon James, now replaced by Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale. From the band’s first album in the 1980s, the self-produced Acoustic Alchemy, to Positive Thinking in 1998 (with Webb and Carmichael) and the latest, Roseland, also self-produced and released on the band’s newly formed label, Onside Records, AA has proven its musical longevity.

We are grateful for their return as a major act in this year’s fest, thanks to ABS-CBN Chair and CEO Gabby Lopez’s passion for jazz music, which always translates to staunch support for the Philippine International Jazz and Arts Festival Foundation Inc.

And on the basis of that Gala Night alone, son Aya said this year’s fest had already outdone the last. Indeed, it’s become the most stellar gathering of local and international jazz artists, offering 20 foreign acts and 150 local musicians this year.

The next night at the Rockwell Tent, the main act was the scintillating Gretchen Parlato with a back-up trio from New York. Named last year as the No. 1 Promising Singer by Downbeat Poll, the lady came with pedigree credentials, and didn’t disappoint.

Hers was a class act, with her songs performed almost as meditative chants. She mesmerized visually, too, as her hands took on a life of their own, complementing her breathy effusions by clapping in a certain way, or handling unique instruments like a pair of woven bottle shapes and what seemed like an ethnic variation of castanets. 

Preceding her was Charmaine Clamor once again, with smooth David Stark on the piano. Malaysian and Indonesian guitarists Az Samad, Dino Fiumara and Johanes Radianto radiated on stage, while Yosha (with Yosha on powerful vocals and her hub Karel Honasan on strong bass guitar) and Manila Paris Confidential also superbly setting the tone for the night. This was billed as the P.I. Jazzfest Night.

The next night was the International Jazz Gala, also at Rockwell Tent. It was my fortune to also have been invited to catch the always superlative Lea Salonga at the Venice Piazza in McKinley Hill that same Sunday. A wondrous performance it was, as expected, with her bro Gerard leading FilHarmonika. Short and sweet at about an hour, with showstoppers galore and a jaunty encore — and since it started at 7 p.m., it gave me a chance to catch up with the jazzfest by 9 p.m. And what a gala cast it was.

First off, I caught the distrbution of the 1st Koyang Awards — to Maestro Romy Posadas, Charmaine Clamor, Skarlet, Kevyn Lettau, Mel Villena, and Philippine jazz history book author-editor Richie Quirino. 

The amiable Ms. Lettau, a P.I. Jazzfest mainstay, then sang three numbers, the first an OPM classic. Mel Villena’s A.M.P. Big Band (with premier saxophonists Tots Tolentino and Mike “Pikong” Guevarra) backed her up as well as the rest of the main performers, including Skarlet, Clamor, the dazzling Art Manuntag, The Company, Tria Bascon from Cebu, pianist Noelle Cassandra, and to top it all off, three “vintage” greats among our formidable array of chanteuses — Carmen Soriano, Carmen Pateña and Pilita Corrales.

Well, to be able to watch and hear on one night such a spectrum of Pinoy musicianship, whether jazz or not — from Lea Salonga to Pilita Corrales — certainly marked it as a memorable one.  

I wish I had been around to catch the Blues Night at Boni High on Feb. 19 (performers included Manila Blues Experience with Wally Gonzales and Kat Arragado, Cookie Chua and Color It Red, guitarist Noli Aurillo, and The Jerks). And despite all good intentions, I also missed a sort of repeat of that on the last night, Feb. 29, at Manila Pen’s Salon de Ning — the culminating P.I. Jazzfest Blues Jam with the Blue Rascals, Blue Rats, Niño Mendoza and the Blue Jean Junkies, star guitarists Joey Puyat and John Besa, saxophonists Roxy Modesto and Pete Canzon, Melbourne-based blues vocalist Bong Sotto, and rocker-icons Jun Lopito and Pepe Smith.

The organizers’ Big Kahuna set of the Virays, Celdran and Alfonso certainly deserve all the kudos that now keep coming their way, for yet another successful jazzfest — the most satisfying thus far, per music lovers.

Next year, why, it could be even stronger — with the prospects of such musical artists as singer Bobby McFerrin, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and Brazilian singer-pianist Tania Maria likely to spearhead the international cast.     

Till then, Bravo, P.I. Jazzfest!