How Joe Mari keeps the music flowing

If you’re a Jose Mari Chan fan (like this one), you know deep in your heart all his songs, from Can We Just Stop and Talk Awhile to Beautiful Girl, and hum every refrain in the afterglow of here, there and everywhere.

Question of the hour: To what Jose Mari Chan song did you lose "it"?

Keep the answer to yourself while memories of (it) follow everywhere you go, down the high and by-ways of your days, with the sound of Joe Mari’s music filling your and my every dream like a love song of long ago.

You guessed it, it’s nostalgia time!

Reason: On Saturday night, Sept. 23, starting at 9 o’clock on RPN 9 (it’s a date!), Joe Mari will bring us back to those days when our hearts were young and all of us were preoccupied with falling in (and out of) love, in a TV special aptly called Jose Mari Chan Souvenirs (which is the title of one of his albums).

A brief flashback...

Joe Mari first appeared on television as a very young guest composer in An Evening With Pilita in 1964. By 1966, he was the host of ABS-CBN’s first teenage shindig show 9 Teeners where he introduced his song Afterglow which would become his first single record in 1967.

Around that same time in American Television, a new genre was being born – Television Specials. Foremost producers like Dwight Hemion began reaping Tony awards for specials they were making for stars like Barbra Streisand, Burt Bacharach, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark and many others. Those specials were in color, produced in sound-stage studios with elaborate sets and beautifully orchestrated songs. They were shows eagerly looked forward to by televiewers, shown during season openings, Thanksgiving Days, the Christmas season, etc., boosting the ratings of the networks CBS, NBC and ABC. Some of those specials are now available on DVDs, proving their timeless quality and appeal.

Very quickly our local networks followed the trend and were soon producing the specials of Dolphy, Pilita Corrales and other stars.

It was in 1973 when Joe Mari had his very first network-produced TV special entitled Can We Just Stop and Talk Awhile, directed by Fritz Ynfante, which spawned several award-winning sequels.

Thirty-three years later, Joe Mari is back on TV with his 16th TV special (Souvenirs, that is).

Funfare caught up with Joe Mari on the phone. Here’s what we talked about:

What makes this special different from your previous ones?

"It features songs from ‘the times of our lives,’ standards and classic love songs culled from my Universal Records album Souvenirs plus a handful of my original songs. It’s a departure from the frenetically edited MTVs of today. It is relaxing, middle-of-the-road, wholesome and romantic. Perfect for September, the month when we remember. We filmed it in the beautiful countryside of Tayabas and Lucena."

With so much competition around, how do you expect to fare?

"For every music lover who watches MTVs, there are nine others out there who love this kind of music. The pop music scene has brought back the old songs by way of Michael Bublé, Rod Stewart and Kenny Rogers, and it has invited the likes of The Lettermen, The Cascades, Manhattan Transfer and Paul Anka to sing for us. There are music fans out there who are hungry for this kind of relaxed, soothing nostalgic musical genre. This special can bring back the era of ’70s TV entertainment."

Aside from Fritz Ynfante, have you worked with other directors?

"Yes, with Al Quinn, Louie Ignacio, Johnny Manahan, Freddie Santos and a few others. This special comes full circle for me because it was Fritz who did four or five of my first ever TV specials. I have a great respect for him; we have remained friends."

Who have you guested in your previous specials and who can we expect this time?

"Running through the list reads like the Who’s Who Registry of the brightest stars of the day. We had Pilita Corrales, Basil Valdez, The Circus Band, The Ambivalent Crowd, Celeste Legaspi, Becca Godinez, Jun Polistico, Tina Revilla, Mitch Valdes, Lea Salonga, Martin Nievera, Sharon Cuneta, Regine Velasquez, Side A Band, Ogie Alcasid, Zsa Zsa Padilla, the APO, Dawn Zulueta, Ric Manrique Jr. and many others. This time, I’ve invited Vilma Santos and Sen. Ralph Recto, Pops Fernandez, The CompanY, Gino Padilla, Janet Basco, Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña, Aliya Parcs, Margarita Saludo and Lindsay Custodio. Oh and before I forget, just as important are my daughter Liza and my three sons Joe, Michael and Franco."

Any new projects after this? Next year is your 40th anniversary as a recording artist, right?

"We have a work in progress, Volume 2 of Souvenirs the CD. It will contain more standards and classic love songs. Hopefully, we will release it before Christmas. Then in 2007, Universal Records will issue the long overdue Ultimate Platinum Collection, an anthology celebrating 40 years of my original songs."

Speaking of concerts, you’re still one of the most sought after

Thank God indeed, I still get a lot of offers. In the last 10 months I’ve done 12 "solo" concerts in various parts of the country and abroad and there are three more coming up before the end of the year. But I do choose my venues and beneficiaries and I space the shows apart so they won’t take precedence over my work and business. I usually sing to raise funds mainly for parish churches, schools, medical groups, orphanages and the likes. Music is truly God’s marvelous gift. It comes around and goes around. You make people happy with your songs plus together you get them to help many good causes.

And how do you, rather, what keeps the music flowing?

"For as long as there are fans out there who will come to my concerts and shows, I will continue to sing my heart out. In a way this Souvenirs TV special is for the thousands out there all over the country who can not afford concert tickets but whose love for music is as great as ours, if not greater."

Of course, Joe Mari, we can stop and talk not just for awhile.

(Note: On Oct. 21, Jose Mari Chan will sing at a fun-raising concert called Concert for a Cause with Jamie Rivera at the Meralco Theater. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Holy Trinity Home for Children, a charitable institution that helps children of marginalized families. Odyssey Foundation, Inc. is organizing the concert which is sponsored by Oriental Tin Can, Leysam Commercial, Equitable-PCIBank, Meralco, United Laboratories, Del Monte Philippines and CDO-Foodsphere. For inquiries, call 294-0681 or 291-1599.)

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