A jazz oasis in Makati

You could go wandering like a man in the desert, looking for good live music in Makati. You could die of musical thirst, if there is such a thing. But thanks to ABS-CBN, the Philippine International Jazz Fest came to Rockwell Tent. We all got the cure.

It’s a pity Chick Corea and John McLaughlin (rumored to be visiting) couldn’t materialize for the month-long series of events. That turned out to be a mirage. Instead, Manila was treated to mall tours by local jazz bands, workshops with the likes of drummer Dave Weckl and fusion guitarist Mike Stern, and black gospel showcases featuring Logic, Juan Isip, and a 300-member gospel choir at Eastwood City. The whole fest culminated in a series of shows at Captain’s Bar and Martinis at Mandarin Hotel, and the 500-plus-seat Rockwell Tent, where we joined up to catch main acts Hiromi’s Sonicbloom and Spyro Gyra.

I hadn’t heard about Hiromi, a young, perpetually smiling Japanese keyboardist who took down the audience like a sonic flamethrower (good thing for us there was air conditioning) on Sunday night in the Tent. I guess I imagined something New Age-y, like Hiroshima or Seawind. Instead, lucky jazz festers were treated to a keyboard virtuoso, the Berklee-trained Hiromi Uehara ably bopping her left and right hands, respectively, over a grand piano and a Nord Lead 2 keyboard (she had a third keyboard, a synth, mounted on the piano). She was assisted by fellow Berklee grads Tony Grey (bass) and Martin Valihora (drums), but the standout players were Dave Fiuczynski, wielding a very rubbery 12-string guitar, and the Japanese wunderkind herself, who erupted into fierce displays on electric covers of Caravan and her own prog-jazz compositions.

It’s hard to pigeonhole this music. Classically trained, Hiromi can whip up any jazz period you like on piano (she was mentored by Ahmad Jamal and Chick Corea); she has the performing skills of early Elton John, kicking out her silver-sneakered feet while slamming her hands, stride-style, up and down the keys. She possesses the keyboard (or is possessed by it?). Kind of like the Bjork of jazz.

Then, when the stunned applause and whistles die down, she demurely smiles and says, “Thank you. You have made me very happy.” Next comes a 10-minute solo based around I Got Rhythm (Gershwin is “someone very dear to me,” she told the audience) that explores ragtime (snippets of The Entertainer), Monk angularities, and the gospel groove of Keith Jarrett, culminating in hard bop and Chopin-on-speed classical runs. Her band members are equally eclectic, especially Fiuczynski, a crowd-working Berklee teacher who fronts the punk-jazz Screaming Headless Torsos when he’s not teaching and touring. His end of the stage was lit up by mind-bending slide-finger work during Caravan and a final showcase that got the crowd standing and swaying, gospel-style.

Jazz has gotten wide enough to include even us,” quips drummer Jay Alviar, whose Brass Munkeys was        slated to perform at another open        stage outside of Rockwell Plant. Brass Munkeys were one of a half dozen local support acts featured this year, plying their own brand of big band swing laced with Pinoy showmanship and mad musical skills. “We only have one brass player, but we’re the Brass Munkeys. Somehow it works.” Later, at the open stage, US-based Laurence Elder plays his signature jazz workouts of Sting’s Heavy Cloud, No Rain as well as a lushed-up, jazz-lite rendition of When I Fall In Love on piano (Jay describes him as “sings like Bruce Hornsby, plays like David Benoit”). Actually, it’s perfect music for standing around, having drinks and talking about the previous furious set by Hiromi.

A Fil-Am jazz chanteuse, Charmaine Clamor, takes the open stage next with a Tagalog-flavored rendition of My Funny Valentine (“dedicated to those who were told that their nose was too flat and they didn’t look right, ‘cause they weren’t white”) that she retitles My Funny Brown Pinay as we head back inside the air-conditioned Tent to catch the night’s headliner, Spyro Gyra.

Now, Spyro Gyra are often thought of as living in the shadow of Weather Report (who are often thought of living in the shadow of Miles Davis’s fusion bands), but seeing them live is a kick in the head. A rainbow coalition of sorts, the ‘80s fusion ensemble was proud to mention this was their third visit to Manila. Wind player and composer Jay Beckenstein, a little grayer on top this time around, was flanked by keyboardist Tom Schuman, bassist Scott Ambush, Latino guitarist Julio Fernandez and Bonny Bonaparte, the corn-rowed percussionist who goes by the monicker “Bonny B” for reasons that become obvious later. Yes, the crowd was thick with die-hard Spyro Gyra fans — several people looked like extras from Miami Vice — and the band knew what it had to deliver. Exploratory workouts on Shaker Song (a huge hit in the Philippines, and worldwide) and Morning Dance got people past the smooth-jazz outer crust of the Gyra’s music; underneath, there is expressive playing, seasoned showmanship, and a still-obvious joy in making music. With the added layer of guitar, there’s a muscularity here that’s sometimes absent from the more cerebral soundscapes of Joe Zawinul’s Weather Report. No wonder Manila loves them.

While Schuman worked his Yamaha ES8 into enveloping, third world sounds on Monsoon, the band members each got a chance to step out, including a mind-bending bass solo by Scotty Ambush, full of slappin’, poppin’ and envelope filter groovin’, that led the group back onstage for another jam. Beckenstein played lengthy (though never long-winded) solos on soprano and tenor saxophone — sometimes both at once — exhibiting amazing breath control. Fernandez, his shaved pate reminding us of Santana after The Big Haircut, flew on a Spanish song that incorporated his latin-rock leanings into the fusion brew. Then “Bonny B” finished up an impressive set with his mix of drum solo, Parliament-style roof-raising, sampled hip-hop cuts and scatting — a booty-bouncer that got almost all the 500-plus at Rockwell Tent up on their feet. 

You may ask yourself, where has Spyro Gyra been all these years? Well, they bagged a Grammy for 2007’s Good To Go-Go, so they’re still what you’d call a “viable entity,” touring the world, touching down in Manila, making audiences smile. Like the little four-year-old Pinoy boy who was beating a drumstick on a cowbell, dancing in front of the Tent stage with his mom during Bonny — er, Bonaparte’s — final number. He didn’t have to ask himself: Is this jazz? His body already knew the answer.

That was a taste of the Philippine International Jazz Festival (the next night featured jazz singer Dianne Reeves and former Miles Davis sideman Mike Stern). According to Monchet Olives, ABS-CBN’s head of Cable and Print Media, the Rockwell Tent venue seems like a good fit: just enough seats, good location. Several months back we saw a sizzling set by John Scofield here, and we can only guess that more jazz will find an oasis and a new home under Rockwell’s wing. While this is the first time ABS-CBN has managed the fest (now in its fourth year), he says “we’re committed to it.” Good news for those dying of thirst in the jazz desert.

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For more jazz fest news, visit pijazzfest.com.