Music against a post-Yolanda setting

WHILE others were rebuilding their lives, running relief kitchens and centers or continuing to appeal for help in behalf of the Bohol quake and super typhoon Yolanda survivors, musicians united, put music and its universal appeal in the service of a great cause.

Prof. Rayben Maigue leads the UP Jazz Ensemble

The UP Jazz Ensemble under Prof. Rayben Maigue opened, with swing-time hits, Ayala Museum's Season's Symphonies Concert Series, a fund-raiser for the Ayala Foundation’s disaster response and preparedness program.

In a commendable format, Lara Maigue narrated the story of jazz, instrument by instrument from a lonely cornet to the thicker texture of trumpets, clarinets and trombones combined. She sang staples like "Alright, Okay, You Win" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." The older Maigue did the demo part, leading the ensemble through a varied repertoire that included Latin-Am rhumba, mambo and samba

Vocalist Lara Maigue

Despite a mic, Maigue's voice was thin for the upbeat "Orange Colored Sky," a tune Jacqui Magno could pull off with seeming lack of effort. She strove mightily but was overpowered by the over-enthusiastic percussionists, wind and brass sections. The band members capped the evening by punctuating "The Christmas Waltz" with a hearty chorus of "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Nevertheless, the vocalist and the band looked like they were enjoying what they were doing as they showed how jazz, adaptable through each era since it began in southern US, is here to stay.

Roxy Modesto on the sax baritone

A beloved University of the Philippines tradition is the singing of Handel's glorious Messiah. But this year's was especially moving. The entire program, featuring the UP choirs and the UP Orchestra from different campuses,was dedicated to the students, teachers and staff of UP Tacloban and their families. The few who made it that evening were given a prolonged applause in the standing-room-only University Theater.

The audience was encouraged to go to the table of the UP Foundation Inc. during the intermission. The staff accepted cash and check donations, issuing receipts in the spirit of transparency and in behalf of the Typhoon Yolanda Relief Fund.

Premiered at this benefit concert was the dirge "Kilos, Iskolar" (music by Verne de la Pena and lyrics by Reuel M. Aguila) written for a chorus and soloist. Mary Jeane Eglosa, a Madrigal soprano who hails from Tacloban, led the UP choirs in a chant-like repetition of lyrics that speak of tears that wouldn't dry up in a time of disaster. In true UP fashion (raised clenched fists), the piece ended with this challenge: "Panahon ng pagbangon/ Panahon ng pagtindig/ Kilos, iskolar/ Dumaraing ang bayan."

Fitri Cerado opens Yolanda fund-raising concert, "Jammin' for Help, Thanking the World," with her interpretation of "One Voice."

Martin Nievera in a duet with Lea Salonga

The talk of the musical grapevine remains "Jamming for Help, Thanking the World," a Fullhouse Asia production to benefit #helpPH at Rockwell Tent, Makati. This was an example of classical music triumphing gloriously over pop music exemplars like Lea Salonga and Martin Nievera.

Cecile Licad rocks Rachmaninoff's Concert No. 2.

Cecile Licad, who had wanted to do something immediately for the Visayas when she heard news of the devastation, made known her fierce passion for this country and her music in her solo parts in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, even in the liquid sounds she produced as her fingers glided through the encore piece "Embraceable You."

Intense connection between Licad and Salonga who led the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra

The ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra under Gerard Salonga played in a way unheard of in the past. It has leveled up remarkably, becoming more than a pop orchestra that provides background music to showbiz stars.

In baseball parlance, the orchestra has, as one, stepped up to the plate and, with Licad, hit a triple homer. Music and sports may seem irreconcilable. But the vigor with which Salonga showed in leading an inspired orchestra that was in sync with Licad--this is the team-up one can never tire off every time the People's Pianist comes home.

Licad used a Steinway that was up for silent auction, proceeds also going to the Yolanda cause.

Wearing t-shirts and jeans, Licad and the others belied the mentality that one must be glamorously outfitted at a concert. They set the tone of sobriety and austerity in a post-calamity context. In their deportment they shamed some audience members who came dressed to kill and wearing their bling blings.

Arthur Espiritu also stepped up to the plate. He drove for hours a truck filled to the brim with relief goods. He and his wife, whose roots are in Samar, delivered these to the typhoon survivors in Llorente, a solidarity gesture that signified, "Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours!"

Christmas caroling quartet made up of tenors Nival and Espiritu, sopranos Meneses and Balajadia

In "Arthur Espiritu and Friends," again at Ayala Museum, he was the audience's darling. The friends included tenor Nomher Nival, sopranos Myramae Meneses and Kay Balajadia, and collaborating pianist Najib Ismail.

Whether singing a difficult, heart-breaker of a Neapolitan song like Cardillo's "Core 'ngrato" or popular fare like the Irish anthem "Danny Boy" or even Brodzsky's "Be My Love," he sounded, in a word, impeccable.

Espiritu

His soaring voice and generosity will be missed as he fulfills singing engagements abroad for six months.--Elizabeth Lolarga

Photos by Anna Leah Sarabia and Elizabeth Lolarga

Simple joys...

...for a simpleton such as I. Yes, I am that. I never quite shook off the 10-year old in me. The thing with retaining that child is getting to a state of happiness is easy-peasy.

Mababaw ang kaligayahan ko. Easy to please, can adjust to any situation with a sense that it's a new adventure, can seek out friends like they were playmates even if they live in a far part of town because, well, play, when you're almost 59 and he is 75, can take the form of verbal jousts (we can't play hit the can anymore or climb trees to gaze at the view, our bodies have turned traitors as far as physical exertions are concerned). Right, Rustie?

Rustie hasn't aged a bit; he hasn't mellowed either. He remains belligerently bull-headed about certain adult themes. Here we are on the 10th of December lunch. His apres-lunch companion has accepted she can't coffee anymore with him but can sip a frap, and, dear barista, please don't be stingy with the cream! After this picture was taken in Imus, Cavite, I had to run off to UP Diliman for the jampacked Handel's Messiah, a story in itself. He waved me off with, "I wish I can go with you, but I will listen to Handel as though I were there with you."

A certain reporter-reviewer I know, who has the initials PAT and organizes concerts now and then, is portrayed in his tux. He's singing, accompanied by a music goddess. Spike-haired companion sings second voice. Doodled the night before Dec. 9.

If you haven't seen the Dustin Hoffmann-directed film Quartet, please do. It features folks like these who live in separate realities of their own, guided by private musical soundtracks. Thank you, Chit Roces Santos, for more pointers on social graces so I can try to be less of a social disaster. All doodles by Vergel O. Santos

I guess I'm this 10-year old who, like Peter Pan, refuses adamantly to be in the exalted ranks of mature persons who own property, hold steadfastly to jobs, have a car or maybe two or three parked in their carports in exclusive villages, buy the latest accoutrements that begin with a small "i" and other similar adult ways--the very thought of them, aray! a pain in my fat ass. Maybe 'tis the reason I can't live with a materialist or pragmatic philosophy but only agree on the analysis of the great social divides. Where does that put outsiders, i.e., kids like me?

Sometimes that can be dangerous, a playmate in my autumn years warned me. Because once a child is crossed, s/he reacts with the fury of a child, too.

Korek siya dyan!

But since this is that wonderful time of the year, I'm gonna let many things pass, forgive myself as I forgive others. Christmas and Easter tide are the best times for those.

Here's to ice cream man Jojo who has made the Kapitolyo-Pineda barangays in Pasig his work area. Every afternoon he pushes a stainless steel cart. Inside are pools of ube and cheese ice cream. The flavors change daily. Here's to milky and sunny days ahead! Life with love is beautiful.

Jojo, the ice cream man who brings joy to the children of public schools in Barangay Pineda and to one person in adjacent Kapitolyo. See you again, Jojo who evokes pictures of Clausy Ho! Ho! Ho! whenever I hear his bell tinkle in mid-afternoon.

Ice cream man's, ice cream cans, glass of ice cream photos by lactose-intolerant but defiant Babeth