Bryson and Osborne: Keepers of the musical torch

In this age of musical decadence, with the current crop of performers mumbling senseless mantras and churning out nothing but bastardized versions of yesterday’s hits, it’s good to know that there are still a few reputable paladins of creative artistry.

Never mind if their names don’t ring a bell among the MTV generation. never mind if they don’t cavort wildly onstage and shake their bonbons. Never mind if their original ballads are rehashed by lesser mortals and sadly, misconstrued as insipid imitations.

Peabo Bryson and Jeffrey Osborne have definitely paid their dues, and they need not do anything to prove it. As two of the more prolific balladeers and R&B singers in the United States, they’ve weathered most of the short-lived musical trends and have become more discerning with their musical tastes.

Bryson is best remembered for his duets with Roberta Flack, Melissa Manchester and Regina Belle, including A Whole New World, If Ever You’re In My Arms Again, and gained local acclaim recently for his team-up with Lea Salonga.

For his part, Osborne’s strong name recall can be attributed largely to Regine Velasquez’s adaptation of On The Wings of Love, perhaps his most popular anthem. An alumnus of the LTD (Love, Togetherness and Devotion), Osborne gained initial acclaim when he went solo and, under George Duke’s supervision, recorded I really Don’t Need No Light and On The Wings of Love, of which both reached the US Top 40 charts.

The duo is currently in town for a two-night concert at the Araneta Coliseum on Nov. 10 and 11 titled Celebration of Love: A Night of Love Songs, Hits and Duets, together with Regine Velasquez.

At the press huddle, the duo showed up amazingly fresh and spiffy, considering the jet lag. Sporting casual tees that displayed their buffed bods, Bryson and Osborne could very well pass off as quarterbacks of tracksters. On the eve of their election day, they were pleasantly surprised when the local entertainment press inquired about their state of affairs back home.

Expectedly, they were soon thrown further queries about Lea Salonga and Regine. "Is Lea in town?" Bryson asked. He would have loved to invite her to do a couple of songs for the concert, but, upon being told of her Miss Saigon stint, Bryson stressed, "Doing Miss Saigon is a tough job and we wouldn’t want to impose on her."

One thing’s sure though. Don’t expect either of them to come up with an album of revivals. "I think that that choice is for people who can’t create things on their own. It’s like, I don’t have any respect for Andy Warhol ‘coz all he’s done is copy the Campbell’s Soup can copy pictures of Marilyn Monroe. Everything is a copy of something. He hasn’t rally created anything," he elaborates.

"Which is a reason we still know who Louis Armstrong is," he rambles on, alluding to the jazz giant’s genius, "coz he created his own style. It’s not that Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera don’t have talent. They just don’t have an identity. Why settle for a copy when you can have the original?" he reiterates.

Osborne, in turn, points an accusing finger at the industry. "I think it takes time for artists to develop. Unfortunately, recording companies don’t do this. There are no artist development departments. If you don’t have a hit song, you get dropped right away," he laments.

Fortunately, both of them have amassed a variety of styles that would please a wide spectrum of tastes and cultures. "One of the things about our being survivors is that we’ve had the good fortune of following our own personal instincts in terms of music, especially pop. Because of this, it is possible to go to a strange place and tailor our songs to please everyone," Osborne continues.

Going back to the originality issue, Bryson emphasizes, "Don’t get us wrong. I would still love to sing other people’s songs, but there are just some songs that we shouldn’t mess with. Like, I recorded Show & Tell, an Al Wilson original, because I felt that the newer generation should know what real songs are like."

"To preserve history... that is an excellent idea for recording old songs. But, if you’re doing it coz you’ve nothing else to do or offer, then that is not good. All artists should have their own mark in their works. That’s what makes art," Bryson concludes.