“Joe Cruz & The Cruzettes “The Manila Hotel” (1976)
Philippine show band. Latin tinged. Funky lounge.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
PINOY GROOVE EXPERIENCE (Philippine Popular Music Revisited):
Bong Penera “Sa Dako Pa Roon ” (1980)
From 1996 - 2006, Bong Penera, the Philippine’s pre-eminent Jazz/Samba/Bossa Nova purveyor of the late 70’s graced the 88 keys not in some grand hall or national institution, but rather the Nordstroms at Woodfield Mall in Shaumburg, Illinois. While the oblivious well-to-do shoppers of the high end department store browsed for a new pair of deck shoes or a smart cardigan, an oft forgotten national treasure of the Philippines was playing “One Note Samba” on the Baby Grand by the escalator well in men’s furnishings.
In Philippines during the late 70’s and early 80’s, Bong was the lone word in Brazillian jazz. With his band, Batucada, Penera produced essential Philippine jazz records A SAMBA SONG, BATUCADA SA CALESA and BONG PENERA. His compositions have been re-recorded by many artists and at one point he was considered to be for Philippine music what Lino Brocka was to Philippine movies.
By the mid-80’s, Penera hit the international circuit eventually settling in the jazz rich city of Chicago.
His first LP is highly sought after by crate diggers and has brought in upwards of $500.00 on Ebay. While the Brazilian music craze of the early 2000’s looked towards new output from Brazil as well as its back catalog and new artists coming from US and Japan, the rest of the world seemed to have missed out on a golden chance to re-discover Penera’s music. Meanwhile, he’s still playing regularly in Chicago.
Look for SAMBA THROUGH LIFE: THE BEST OF BONG PENERA on Penny Rose Records.
Taken from his self-titled third LP, Jazz/Samba/Bossa legend Bong Penera’s “Sa Dako Pa Roon” has a timeless sound. A cool and steady Bossa/Samba groove with Penera’s Jobim-esque vocals singing in Tagalog. When that tambourine comes in 1/3 of the way, it’s hard not to dance. I’ll post the reprise version on my next post. A darker version with a child (or child like) vocals. That is also equally irresistible.
BEAT SOUL FUNK: The Pinoy Groove Experience 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Originally posted on March 3, 2008 on UpsetterSound.com’s Los Relics Radio curated by good friend filmmaker, DJ, musician, urban scholar, neophyte skater and family man Lakandiwa de Leon. His call out to selector friends to make mixes to share for Los Relics allowed me to share my growing collection of Pinoy (Filipino) centric records. Not a lot of venues I can play VST or Eva Eugenio, but I can always play Bataan or Barabas though. Although I once played a Black Opinion (Philippine Funk-Disco band) track at a club but no one noticed or realized it was in tagalog, not even Apl de Ap, who walked in on the empty club as I started my set. Alas, “Bebot” is not in this mix.
So, one restless night at 2am I started pulling records of varying styles, origins, languages and eras but all had one thing in common, all were made by Filipinos (full blooded or not) whether solo or part of the band. Whether it was the Morales brothers as part of Spain’s psych-funk band Barabas or Afro-Filipino Joe Bataan from Spanish Harlem, beat music from the Rocky Fellers in the US or Jaime Salazar from Cebu, Philippine dream pop from Rey Valera or blissful 70’s pop from Apo Hiking Society and Cinderella, or from the Bay Area, soul wailer Sugar Pie DeSanto and ethno-funk heavies Dakila, all of them Pinoys and all make up this diasporic mixtape.
Two years after recording this rambling and rather technically flawed mix I have made it somewhat of a mission to help re-introduce Philippine popular music to an audience that would not normally seek them out as well as re-contextualize the music for people to appreciate and enjoy again or for the first time. A tad grandiose, but I will attempt to, at least.
One funky track at a time if I have to! ;-)
Anyways, hope you check it out and share it with friends.
THE CURRENT AND FUTURE MIXTAPE:
- BEAT SOUL FUNK: The Pinoy Groove Experience
- DISCOMANILA
- PINOY ROCK
- PINOY LOUNGE
- PINOY FOLK
- PINOY JAZZ
