Playing the soundtrack of their lives

There is a flood of nostalgia everytime John Lesaca and Cash Manalang talk about their involvement with music from way back.

From the late ’60s into the ’70s and on to the ’80s (from their high school to college years until they got their first professional jobs), music was their passion.

The two were next-door neighbors way back in Diliman but they took different musical routes, at one time or another, only to meet again with their common obsession intact: the Beatles.

John, who also got involved with such bands as The Rainchecks, Cactus Band, Manila Band and Child of Morning, among others, turned to classical music through his violin and got to play with the Manila Symphony and the Philippine Philharmonic. His violin turned to pop as well after his classical years and he was soon on late night television hosting a classical music program with soprano Fides Cuyugan Asensio.

Cash plays both the bass and acoustic guitar and got involved with bands such as The Chosen Few, The Flintstones, Manila Band and White Flight, among others.

In the late ’60s and into the ’70s, the Beatles was their music icon.

Into the 21st century with non-music jobs sustaining them, the two met again, talked about the Beatles and decided to form the duo, John y Cash (they will be heard at Merk’s Bar Bistro tonight and on June 21) and joined another Beatles-obsessed group called The Jukebox (together they will be heard at Merk’s Bar Bistro on June 19 and 26).

When performing together, the group is called John y Cash & The Jukebox.

One caught up with the duo and the group one rainy Wednesday night and waxed nostalgic about the good old times.

Along with John and Cash is TV director Bert de Leon, who got hooked on band music from way back.

Says John, "We got together because we stumbled upon a common interest. All of us loved the Beatles and were certified Beatles fans. We have not sung together in a long, long time but somehow when the chance came to get together through music, everything jibed. The analogy there is that we were like seasoned swimmers before and after years of hiatus were suddenly thrown into the waters and we knew exactly what to do. We reassigned roles in the band and it just jelled. When we were rehearsing for our first gig, it was more like jamming than rehearsing. We got invited again after our first gigs and that encouraged us to meet and jam more often."

Rues Bert de Leon, "I direct such TV shows as Eat, Bulaga! but making music is really what I like doing. If only I could make a living on music, I’d gladly leave TV work. I am a classic case of a TV director who wants to be a rock star."

John has a good memory of his early musical education.

He remembers being involved in an early ’70s concert called From Bach To Beatles staged at the Meralco Theater and it was memorable from the point of view of a classical musician and a Beatles fanatic.

Recalls John, "Imagine singing the songs of the Beatles with the UP String Quartet with the likes of Boy Camara and Anthony Castelo and being accompanied by Prof. Sergio Esmilla Jr. and Rizalina Buenaventura."

Years after they were separated by individual non-music pursuits (read: earning a decent living), they are back to singing Beatles and performing with a vengeance.

Bert says interpreting their favorite music with mature years behind them taught them that the Beatles has no racial and generation gap. "What is amazing is that after years of playing Beatles music, we are still learning and discovering new things from the same sound," he points out.

John and Cash are often referred to by other members of The Jukebox as walking Beatles encyclopedia. "We knew in what year a Beatles song came into being and in what album and what cut and we knew what song follows another," says John.

So what is the challenge of going back to the Beatles and singing them in a bistro bar?

John gets deeper: "For me, it’s not a case of facing another challenge but more of remembering. As we sang, we were seeing flashbacks of our lives and what we were doing during the peak of the Beatles. It floods you with a lot of memories – friendships formed, your juvenile years, your romantic involvements. Yes, it is a challenge working as a group and reassigning who gets to sing what song. If you hear Cash sing and you close your eyes, it’s like hearing Paul McCartney. You should hear Bert de Leon sounding like John Lennon."

Bert de Leon butts in to say that the music of the Beatles is the soundtrack of their common lives.

There is no saying where the group is headed but this much they can say.

John asserts, "We want us to be associated with good music and lots of fun. We don’t say we are the best interpreters of the Beatles but this is us. What you hear is what you get. We also want our performances to evoke memories from the audience – their struggling years, the year they were courting their future wife, the Beatle song popular when their first babies came. Things like that. You’d be surprised that even the younger ones not yet born during the ’60s and the ’70s liked the Beatles. It is really the music for all generations."

(For inquiries on the shows of John y Cash & The Jukebox at Merk’s Bar Bistro call 757-4720.)