'Vuvuzelas' & all that jazz

Twas a fun night at US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr.’s North Forbes digs last Thursday, with the visiting Mark Sherman-Tim Horner Jazz Quartet providing a preview of its performances scheduled in Makati and Bacolod deeper into the week.

The following morning, the quartet conducted a master class at the UST Conservatory of Music, an afternoon workshop at the Ayala Museum, and an evening performance at the Greenbelt 3 Park, with both events free to the public.

Last Saturday the quartet flew to Bacolod to engage the Jazz Society of Negros in cultural and musical exchange at the University of St. La Salle before another performance at Cinema 1 of SM City Bacolod. 

The group has performed internationally for the last five years, touring the US, Canada and Europe. Each member is said to have “strong teaching credentials, bring(ing) a deeply-rooted post-bop jazz approach to original and standard compositions which carry on the art form with a high level of invigorating musicianship.”

Their music has been described as “relentless, energetic, and brimming with improvisation mostly influenced by the music of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Michael Brecker.”

As part of an Asian tour that includes Russia, South Korea, and China, the New York-based quartet’s visit here was made possible by the United States Embassy in line with The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program, a partnership between the Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 

At the ambassador’s residence, a relaxed atmosphere prevailed through sundown and early evening as invitees numbering a little more than a hundred were treated to cocktails before we converged in a salon that opened to the lanai and terrace. There the quartet played a couple of their original tunes, before indulging in a jam session with our own homegrown geniuses of vocal and instrumental improvisation.

Sandra Lim-Viray who spearheads the P.I. (for Philippine International) Jazz Festival Foundation that had helped sponsor the Ayala Museum workshop took first crack at the vocals with an invigorating Summertime.

The audience, including Ambassador Thomas, enjoyed free standing to the salon’s capacity. Only a few senior citizens, like our former colleagues in the MTRCB and our fellow STAR columnists Johnny Litton and Rosalinda “Baby” Orosa, were privileged to appreciate the music while seated comfortably on the corner couches.

The rest of the guests took turns peeking in or simply caught the dynamic strains of organized harmony from the tables outside, a section of which was dubbed “the green room” for its assembly of musicians, many of whom were called up to join the jam.   

These included our lifelong friend Jacqui Magno, her fellow jazz diva Pat Castillo, and Art Manuntag (who said he’s a Thursday regular again at 7th Note at the Makati Golf Driving range.) Also taking their turns were the inimitable Richard Merck and Edgar “Koyang” Avenir, the Yoda of Pinoy guitar masters.

Other six-string virtuosos like Johnny Alegre, Butch Roxas and Andy Locsin (of Blue Rats) didn’t pick up any guitar but contented themselves with the flowing spirits, especially the classical guitarist among them, jeje.

Diminutive Roxy Modesto was game with her humongous baritone saxophone, as well as other Pinoy jazzists whom I failed to identify. Maybe I should have consulted the excellent music reviewer Poch Concepcion or the CCP’s Irene Obligacion-Rada.

Culture head honchos Nes Jardin and his successor at CCP, Raul Locsin, were also around, as well as rock and pop stars such as RJ Jacinto and Joe Mari Chan, while the celluloid industry was glamorously represented by Ronnie Ricketts, Cesar Montano and Sunshine Cruz.  

Señor Jose Rodriguez, director of the Instituto Cervantes, was among the other guests we greeted early, with a “Que barbaridad? (Wha’ happened?)” — referring to Madre España’s stunning upset the day before to the lowly Swiss in World Cup group play. The debonair Pepe could only throw his hands up in the air before quipping in a whisper: “The government will fall.”

Amb. Thomas was evidently in his element, although he rued that his wife, herself a singer of note as we learned, happened to be out of the country. In a brief first huddle with Nes Jardin and this writer, he let on that he’s been reading Philippine books, not just history but fiction as well, naming Poon by Frankie Jose as one of the recent titles he’s devoured.

Well, right under a great santol tree that happened to be fruiting, as Nes exclaimed in delight, the good ambassador learned that Manong Frankie’s title is pronounced as two syllables. Other than that, the smattering of Filipino with which he welcomed his happy guests may be said to be well-nigh impeccable.

Still on the jazz front, my son Aya whom I had wanted to join me in that affair couldn’t because he had to stand in for Koyang at the Thursday night gig at Martinis in Mandarin Hotel. Presently Aya has his own regular gig as part of trios and quartets at Freedom Bar in QC every Monday and at Sofitel Hotel on Tuesday nights. 

We should also plug Skarlet’s Ten-02 Jazz Bar on Scout Ybardolaza off Timog Avenue, where Mel Villena and his big band will be playing tonight, with a number of poets and writers like Marne Kilates, Conrad de Quiros and Charlson Ong intent on attendance. 

Then tomorrow night you should make it to Merck’s at Greenbelt for yet another special edition of Pete Lacaba’s Salinawait series, with the divine diva Cookie Chua as prime vocal exponent.

If you miss that, you can still catch Pete, this time with Princess Nemenzo, essaying his translations into Filipino of popular Western standards at the Printemps des Poetes or Spring of Poets annual reading at Alliance Française on Wednesday, June 23. Usually scheduled around March, the 2010 edition got deferred for technical reasons. But it remains a treat of the spoken and sung word, with leading poets joining up for what has already become another welcome and happy tradition.

Among the readers (or singers), as far as I can tell, will be Jimmy Yambao, Vim Nadera, RayVi Sunico, Cesare A.X. Syjuco, Marne Kilates, Mookie Katigbak, Yanna Acosta, Joel Salud, Asha Macam, Kash Avena, Maxine Syjuco and Johanna Fernandez.

As conceived by AF president Deanna Ongpin-Recto and deputy director Mickael Balcon, this year’s theme will be “Couleur Femme” or “Color of Woman.” Alliance Française de Manille is at 209 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo), Makati. The event starts at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

Now, I’m happy to report that while it might not get here on time for me to blow it in Makati, I’m expecting a gift of a vuvuzela soon, from a friend who attended the opening match of the World Cup as a FIFA rep. Maybe I’ll eventually have a couple of this instrument of current controversy, since I’ve also texted a friend in Durban, South Africa, to send me one with the Bafana Bafana colors, meaning the yellow and green of the host country’s football team.

If you’re staying up till 4 in the morning to watch the World Cup matches live on the Balls channel (thanks much, Sky Cable), you’d know what’s a vuvuzela — thousands of which are causing that infernal buzz or racket that continues to irritate some viewers unaware of the host country’s traditions when it comes to celebrating the beautiful game.

Here’s how the vuvuzela has been described: “Up close it’s an elephant, sure, but en masse the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees. And when there’s action near the goal mouth, those bees go really crazy.”

It’s a stadium horn measuring from two feet to a meter, commonly blown by fans during football games in South Africa. A similar horn called corneta is used by football fans in Brazil, although there one can still hear the predominant samba music from percussive instruments.   

The vuvuzela’s sound level has been measured at 127 decibels, although a new model, per Wikipedia, “has a modified mouthpiece which is claimed to reduce the volume by 20 decibels.” 

Now the vuvuzela is mass-manufactured, even by companies in China. I’m dying to get my hands on one, so that finally I’ll have a counter-measure for all those car-alarm signals that always accidentally go off in our neighborhood. Here’s hoping that I manage to learn to pucker up and blow it. My smoking could get in the way.