Jazz for the love
For fans of jazz music, these have been lean times, as it has evolved into a niche genre and music halls and venues have generally refrained from booking local jazz musicians or bands for regular gigs. But if February is traditionally a red-letter month (thanks to the 14th), it also carries similar significance for jazz lovers, with the slew of foreign jazz acts and artists who will be performing right here in Manila throughout the month.
It all kicked off on the 11th at the PICC Plenary Hall, as smooth jazz, crossover pianist David Benoit had his pre-Valentine concert. Brought to us by 106.7 Dream FM, Ambient Productions and Shindig Inc; the concert featured local artists such as Bituin Escalante, saxophonist Tots Tolentino and Gerard Salonga all on the playbill to jam with David. His composition Key to You was interpreted by Gerard’s sister Lea on one of her albums, and David has collaborated with the likes of Russ Freeman and David Pack, stalwarts of the crossover genre; and provided the music to the Peanuts TV specials of CBS. A regular Manila visitor, this turned out to be one romantically musical night.
The latter half of the month is Manila Jazz Festival time. Brought to us by Sandra Viray and ABS-CBN (chairman Gabby Lopez has long been an avid jazz supporter), there are mall activities, workshops and straight-up concerts scheduled from the 12th to the end of the month. One special night will have to be Jane Monheit’s concert at the Rockwell Tent on the evening of Feb. 26, Friday. One of today’s universally-acclaimed jazz vocalists, just think of a livelier, more dulcet-voiced Diana Krall. Just as at ease with standards as with contemporary songs, her latest CD, The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me takes its title from a line of the song Rainbow Connection, and she essays songs by Fiona Apple and Corinne Bailey Rae. Jane is really something special, and even if not an out and out jazz enthusiast, catch Jane for some impeccable singing and lyrical song interpretations!
Other acts slated for the Festival, which shifts to the Sofitel Harbour Garden after Feb. 26, include The Brand New Heavies and Yellowjackets, so that’s funk and jazz covered. Homegrown jazz diva (or is “divette” an actual word?) Mishka Adams and bands like the underappreciated SinoSikat? are booked to perform, so that’s a whole lotta jazz for the month, something music lovers should anticipate and relish.
For your consideration
This time out, there is no unifying them connecting these three novels; but they all come highly recommended — it’s all just a matter of deciding “which is your poison.” Steve Hely is the one for literary humor — with a distinctly cynical twist; while Pat Conroy is... well, Pat Conroy — he wrote The Prince of Tides, contemporary literature of the American South. And the renowned Iain Banks checks in with a science-fiction novel.
How I Became A Famous Novelist by Steve Hely (available at National Bookstore): If you’re in the market for a witty, pricelessly funny, smart-aleck of a book, look no further than this first novel of Steve Hely. A writer on David Letterman and the cartoon series American Dad (should give you an idea of Steve’s preferred type of humor), the novel is a tongue-in-cheek expose on writing best-seller novels. The protagonist is a hack, writing college entrance forms and theses, when he chance upon a TV show highlighting bestselling novelists. Figuring he can do that as well as any of them, he devises a list of must-have’s and sure-fire promotional ploys to give his novel-in-making guaranteed success — and it works! Cynical, yet hilarious, this is one perfect summer read.
South of Broad by Pat Conroy (available at National Bookstore): “I went directly from a fearful childhood to a hopeless one without skipping a beat” and with these words, narrator Leopold Bloom King takes us on a wild and eventful 20 years of growing up and living in Charleston, South Carolina (from the ‘60s to the ‘80s). Conroy is the author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, so one knows what to expect — old time, vivid storytelling, with grand gestures and plot twists. Integration, the clash between high society and townies, an excursion to San Francisco where the ugly head of AIDS rises, a Katrina-type episode and a shadowy father to two of our characters, with deep rooted psychological problems and homicidal tendencies. A hell of a tale — classic Conroy!
Transition by Iain M. Banks (available at National Bookstore): While stark psychological portraits have been the territory of Iain Banks (example, The Wasp Factory), when he utilizes his middle initial M, it signifies he’s dabbling in science-fiction. This novel actually plays somewhere in between, dabbling in multiple realities and dimensions — both spatial and temporal — and utilizing a host of voices/narrators to give us a grim portrait of this Transition world. Posited at a time between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers, it’s in the premise of time travel by a band of liquidators and assassins that Banks offers us something new and unique. A mix then of psychological studies and straight ahead sci-fi storytelling, this is one strong outing that had me transfixed.
