i am walking through a silver morning
and i feel the music inside me
what can i say if it makes me feel this way
gonna bring it home to you

from kenny rankin's song silver morning

to cheer you up...

i love you jazz the way you are

My cousin Wet introduced me to jazz, and big bands. Before that, I never heard of Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker or Joe Sample and his contemporaries. Then I fell in love with Manhattan Transfer, Chuck Mangione, the Crusaders, Noel Pointer, George Benson, to mention just a few. Listening to their music makes me feel alive... gives me a reason to be, sort of.

We also have jazz singers and performers here in the Philippines.. but I haven't heard of their renditions anymore, live or on radio. Many of the Filipinos are just not into it. I feel a little sad that talented Filipino jazz artists like Jacqui Magno stopped having concerts because there's just too little demand for her musical forte. Lately, however, there's a good number of local talents like Sitti, Richard Poon and Nina who dared to be different. Sitti's samba sounds good and Richard Poon's I'll Take Care of You sounds romantic. Nina's stylized rendition of classics is fresh and scintillating.

I am not saying that jazz performers don't have a following here. They do have a good number from the A and B crowd..those who have "the" taste for it and at the same time can afford a 4-digit tickets. So for the rest of us who may have the taste but don't have a grand or two for the ticket will just have to wait for 2 weeks or maybe a month for the televised version. Fair enough, I think.

But then, we can always download. Right?


Photo of Chuck Mangione from www.starpulse.com

classic kalachuchi

We have one kalachuchi tree on our front yard and it's blooming. The flowers are white and smells sweet-too sweet actually that sniffing it makes me want to puke...no, just kidding. But I'm not as to its sweet smell.

The flowers often drop the day after they open but the smell stays. Epoy really loves to pick them up. I saw one that he missed and it looked just like this one.