Botti redux & Mövenpick relaunch

Now that was a musical concert of the first water last Thursday  at Resorts World Manila’s Newport Theater for the Performing Arts. For the third time in the last 12 months, the world’s best and most successful trumpet player, Chris Botti, mesmerized Pinoys with his music and great good vibes.

“Christmas with Chris Botti” was a one-night stand, but it will reverberate in the heart and mind. Thanks to Radio City High 105.9 FM and its bossman Francis Lumen, local Botti fans that are legion were treated once more to his scintillating brand of showmanship.

Just as in his two previous appearances in Manila, Chris Botti made sure to come up with a selection of top-flight musical artists to perform with him — as a team. It showed once more how his qualities as a bandleader have positively gained from all his experience on the world stage with other bywords in the music industry — from Sting to Sinatra, Pavarotti to Yoyo Ma.

The way Francis Lumen stages the Botti repeat concerts also says something about total and thoughtful entertainment. With Radio High and Resorts World Manila as caring partners, the show’s proceeds were earmarked for the benefit of Children’s Hour and its various programs to help disadvantaged Filipino kids. 

The night started with inimitable cuteness that quickly brought the house down, with little boys and girls lining up onstage brandishing bamboo instruments and then some, and regaling everyone with folksy music with a novel twist. Credit the lovable front act to both the Philippine Montessori Center Instrumental Ensemble (PMCIE) and the Temple Hill International School Instrumental Ensemble (THISIE)

Then our very own jazz greats took over for another aperitif — which could have been the main act had they not preceded Botti & Co. Richard Merk and Jacqui Magno, still admirably powerful as mainstays of vocal jazz styling, were accompanied by the crème de la crème of Pinoy jazz: the maestro Tots Tolentino on saxophone, Elhmer Saison on the piano, Colby dela Calzada on upright bass, Mar Dizon on drums, and Uli Avante on percussion.

If that wasn’t setting the tone for more ratcheting to follow, then there isn’t any Santa, or at least his larger-than-life standee in the smoking section that’s the fringe area of the casino — where we repaired to for the intermission.

Botti brought the same band that had thrilled us no end last June at the same venue, with each musician being tops in his field: “bad-ass” Billy Kilson on drums, Leonardo Amuedo on guitar, Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Andy Ezrin on keys, and Richie Goods on bass.

Last December when Botti performed at Greenbelt 5’s Fashion Walk, he had special performers Lisa Fischer on vocals and Aurica Duca on violin. They came back with him last June. But last Thursday, they had been replaced, at no loss, with the young and attractive Renee Olstead as the band singer and Arianna Warsaw-Fan on violin. 

When Botti called on the lady violinist, we immediately knew that he wasn’t going to keep the concert exclusively betrothed to Christmas melodies. We had wished for a repeat of Emmanuelle, his signature song in many ways. And true enough, that popular entry in his landmark album “Live in Boston” (2008), where the violinist was another lady, Lucia Micarelli, sent us into senti rapture once again, performed as it was live.         

Other Botti repertoire standards that we can’t have enough of were Miles Davis’ Flamenco Sketches and Concerto de Aranjuez / Sketches of Spain (included in the album “Impressions”), Chopin’s Prelude in C Minor, Bacharach’s The Look of Love (done very differently this time, with a Brazilian samba tempo essayed by the brilliant guitarist Amuedo, Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso, and Michael Jackson/R.Kelly’s You Are Not Alone (again with Amuedo on his “silent guitar.”)

We missed out on Somewhere Over The Rainbow, but then one can’t have everything. Oh, and the Pinoy youngster discovered by Botti last June at a workshop, now 13-year-old John Phillip “JP” Sta. Ana, also did a solo with the trumpet Botti had awarded him, and then a duet with his patron. J.P. was playing the cornet as a scholar of Young Musicians Development Organization and a Philippine Youth Symphonic Band member when he impressed Botti with his tonal gift.

All in all, it was a splendid night of endearing music, And we so hope that Chris Botti returns next year to privilege us again.

By the by, a night earlier, we had also been awarded a great night of music at the Mandarin Hotel’s Martinis bar, where the young saxophonist Sophie Alour performed as part of a French trio as a teaser of sorts. They did several numbers for a 30-minute set, as their main gig would be at Bonifacio High Central the next night. A pity that it coincided with the Botti concert. But at least we got a taste of Alour & Co. before the Wednesday blues-and-rock set took over, featuring a couple of bywords since a century back: Jose “Peyaps” Smith and Wally Gonzalez. Ah, I tell you, Ruby Tuesday never sounded that achingly good!  

And now we look forward to another kind of music, the deejay type, Ibiza-style, when Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island is re-launched in grand style on Dec. 15.

Last Nov. 23, our good friend Manny Osmeña, the visionary vintner who has placed our country on the wine map by winning close to a 100 international awards for his Manny O. Wines, invited us to “Enchant our palate with the marriage of good food and good wine” at Buddha-Bar Manila.”

Manny O. delivered a talk, inimitably informative as has been his canny wont, as we “worked” our way through a five-course meal paired with four of his wines. Why, I even won a bottle of 2010 Agapito Rosé from Alentejo, Portugal — a remarkable blend of three grape varietals found only in that country — for muttering the correct answer to a question, one of many that Manny usually spices his talks with.

And our partner took home the grand prize of a double magnum of Sumiller 2009 for also coming up with the answer to his most difficult question: the name he would give his grand ecru that’s still in the works. Of course the clues helped, but then no one else could come up with the word until our bright date did. And taxed my biceps with the weight of the 3-liter bottle in a bespoke wooden case from Spain.

We expect more of the same lavish hospitality from Manny when he reopens Mövenpick this Saturday. He has promised a “total transformation” — to the tune of P500 million — one that would certainly “elevate your five-star hotel experience to the ultimate resort lifestyle.”

Much-anticipated is the Ibiza Beach Club that’s supposed to create a party atmosphere never seen in our neck of the woods. The club will welcome international celebrity DJ Toni M (who gave us a teaser at Buddha Bar), and a booth worthy only of world-class performers.

For the Ibiza Beach Club, Mövenpick has created a crescent-shaped wooden deck skirting the waters and leading all the way to the landmark, or rather watermark, feature of Mövenpick, the kiosk-like structure that juts out to sea, billed as Manny O.’s Wines & Tapas Bar.

We’ve enjoyed luxe comforts in this hotel in the past, from the white-sand beach to the spa treatments to the excellent food — among them a unique dish Manny himself created: the wagyu shio yaki sushi — Scottish fillet center cut of wagyu seared then sliced to wrap around Japanese rice, thus resembling toro sushi.

Now we look forward to Mexican-Spanish executive chef Johnny Rodriguez, who’s come on board to conceptualize all meals after his sterling experience at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills.

Then there’ll be a towering Venus coffee machine by Victoria Arduino, the same as that used at the Vatican. And so I’ll sip brew after brew as a toast to St. Pedro Calungsod — before moving on to other spirited brews when the sun goes down, and the party mood goes up up up at the Ibiza Beach Club of Mövenpick. 

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Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island is located in Punta Engaño, Mactan Island. Call +63 32 492 7777, email hotel.cebu@moevenpick.com or visit www.moevenpick-hotels.com/cebu for news and details.