Jim Brickman: Going back to basics

At the rate he’s coming and going, Jim Brickman should be embraced by Filipinos as their adopted son. In the last three years, Brickman has been here so many times that he has become an integral part of the local showbiz landscape. He was here last year to promote his album (released locally by BMG Pilipinas) and he’s back to release another new album (also by BMG) and to star in a concert tonight and tomorrow night at the PICC Plenary Hall with Sharon Cuneta and Joey Generoso (Side A vocalist) as guest performers.

The two-night concert is called Jim Brickman: Simple Things which is also the title of his new album. These past several days, the song What’s the Good in Goodbye, has been very audible on radio, sung by Sharon and composed by Brickman who’s well-loved for his instrumental pieces.

During a one-on-one yesterday at the Hyatt Hotel where he and his companions are billeted, Funfare asked Brickman if he wrote the song specially for Sharon. Yes, he said, he composed it exclusively for Sharon and nobody but.

"It’s a perfect song for her voice," said Brickman, a shy artist. "As a person, I find her to be very kind and very generous… very respectful. Very honest and very sincere, too, in a genuine way. I noticed it when she introduced me to members of her family."

Why did he call his latest album Simple Things?

"Well, because it’s all about going back to basics, the simple things in life which are actually very important, such as family and friendship and love relationships. If you listen closely, what makes a song memorable and beautiful is its basic simplicity."

The title also speaks volumes about Brickman who is so simple that you won’t find a single piece of jewelry in his body, not even a basic accessory like a watch.

"I’ve never been somebody attached to material things. I’m more interested in love and friendship and honesty in my music."

He’s, in fact, so simple and so self-effacing that, related Brickman, a foreigner-tourist also billeted at the Hyatt mistook him for a pianist at the hotel’s Calesa bar.

"I was working out at the gym," smiled Brickman who arrived with his companions just the other day from Los Angeles, still trying to shake off jet lag, "and this guy asked me where I was from and what I did for a living. I told him, ‘I’m a pianist.’ He nodded and pointed to the (Calesa Bar), thinking that I was performing there. Then he asked what my name was and I said, ‘Jim Brickman.’ His eyes lit up and he said, ‘Oh, you’re the Jim Brickman!’ He told me that his wife is my fan."

Anyway, the foreign tourist ended up buying tickets for him and his wife to the PICC show tonight.

You wonder, does he write the song first and then look for the singer or is it the other way around (like he did with What’s the Good in Goodbye for Sharon who included it in her best-selling BMG album)?

"If you know the singer very well, her voice and her spirit, I write the song specially for her to sing. But there are exceptions, like Even Santa Fell in Love which I wrote years ago and just kept in my file. Lea (Salonga) recorded that song last year and included it in her Christmas album (also released by BMG)."

And what kind of singer does he think can give justice to his compositions, who can best interpret his work?

"Singers who know what they’re singing about, doing it straight from the heart. Like Sharon. She knows what she’s singing, the feelings are coming straight from the heart, and she’s communicating them very effectively and very beautifully. She knows exactly every word of the lyrics and the melody."

Does he have to be in love to come up with a beautiful song?

"You have to have something in your heart that hopes for those things. You have to be honest with what you really want and see yourself as if your life is blown up on a big screen like a movie."

I told him that his lovelife must be colorful for him to be able to create such beautifully-romantic music.

"Colorful, yeah! One of the challenges of most artists is that they travel so much in connection with their work and their personal lives sometimes suffer. It takes a very special person to understand your desire to make music."

I capped the brief one-on-one by asking Brickman what he considered the most romantic song he has ever heard, not his own.

"Someone to Watch Over Me. It’s a beautiful song, isn’t it? It’s very romantic, although nothing there says ‘I love you’ or ‘You love me.’ Listen to the lyrics of that song and you’ll see how romantic it is."

(For ticket inquiries and reservations, call Ticketworld at 891-5610 or visit National Bookstore branches, Robinsons Department Stores Galleria and Malate, Tower Records Makati and Alabang, Music Museum in Virra Mall. Or you can log on at Ticketworld website www.ticket-world.com.ph. For inquiries on tonight’s show, you can also call JLF Organizations at 6347776, 6384243 or 6384244.)