The NPC’s Night of Music

Pairing timelessness and pop may sound like an oxymoron, yet most of that evening’s repertoire was timeless pop music just the same; timeless, because those pop greats of yesteryears have withstood the test of decades. Dubbed ‘As Time Goes By,’ the night’s musical numbers were offered by a veritable who’s who in the country’s music world.

Thanks to Alice H. Reyes, vice-president of the National Press Club (NPC), the husband and I were at the NPC’s historic Plaridel Hall last July 28.  The hall, for one, holds the distinction of being the take-off point for the escape of Satur Ocampo from his captors during martial law.

They met a couple of years back, the husband and Alice, and since then Alice always remembers to invite us to whatever activities she’s involved in, whether it’s the Aliw Awards, the FAMAS, or the NPC.  We hold Alice in respect as an accomplished, no-nonsense woman, and we always tried to honor her invitation, rain or shine. That night we realized that Alice is the NPC’s institutional memory.

A man in black passed by our table. He’s an Area One member, the husband said.  Aside from honoring Alice’s invitation, it was my curiosity about Area One that compelled me to be where I was that night. The husband has been telling me about the acoustics band, its songs, and its performance on Wednesdays at the Hard Rock Café in Makati. He wants us to go there, assured that I would like the band.

For someone who had relegated music to the background most of his young life in favor of perfecting his affair with poetry, the husband’s opinion carried weight. The band’s music must be something because he seldom talks about music, I concluded. The entrance fee is 400 bucks, good for two drinks, he volunteered. (Huh?  What will we be drinking; nectar from Mt. Olympus?)

The NPC night’s dinner show was directed by Dingdong Cabazor, with Gerry Matias as the musical director. Expectedly, there was an accompanying live band. The boy singer Miguel Aguila opened the show with two current songs right after the welcome remarks of the NPC president, Antonio A. Antonio of Bulletin Today.

I must admit I’m familiar with only three of the evening’s performers, John Lesaca, Bert de Leon and Rico J. Puno. I can also claim familiarity with two others who were expected but didn’t make it, Jose Mari Chan and Pilita Corrales. This means that I haven’t been updated about the current crop of singers. (Thanks to Gardy Labad who updated me first about Bohol’s own Jerome Sala.)

The other performers were Miguel Castro, Ladine Roxas, and Christine Valdez. Aliya Parcs, whose flu bout I presumed kept her from the show’s practices, sang a few lines.  There was also the dance group called the Go Girls that provided two dance numbers.

One thing with the lady singers, they were all belters. Their songs were always highlighted with lung power as they hit the high Cs and held it there, the longer the better.  And always, the audience reacted with appreciative claps. They took one’s breath away, literally and figuratively.

But it seems there’s a dearth of willowy singing these days; more of Imelda Papin than Claire de la Fuente of the ‘70s, more of Shirley Bassey than Karen Carpenter. I daresay no one hereabouts can sing as effortlessly as Astrud Gilberto, whose singing is dreamlike, or has the voice of Peggy Lee, she of my father’s generation whose voice I can only dream about.

Rico J. Puno was still in his element, though no longer as lean.  He was gross, I mean his jokes were.  He hasn’t lost his style, an almost ordinary voice but with power and pathos that made him a singing idol of the ‘70s, and a performance prowess one can only call, well, Ricoesque.  His songs struck me as truly popular because he had numbers when he asked the audience to sing along, and the audience did, including me.

My singing career was launched here, Rico J. declared in gratitude to the NPC.  Most of our careers were launched here, he added for emphasis. I sung here before for free just so I’ll be noticed, and until now I’m still singing here for free! That was Rico J., to the audience’s laughter. Still, his green jokes were good only for a smaller crowd of drunks at home with each other.

With the Area One though, my night was made.  Four busy men with day jobs decided to group as an acoustic band for a hobby.  They grew up together, neighborhood playmates at UP Diliman in a place called Area One, thus the band’s name.

John Lesaca, sometimes dubbed as “Fiddler on the Loose,” was the country’s advocate of violin playing innovation.  He jazzed up standard violin numbers and showed the instrument’s limitless capabilities with his deft fingers, expert bowing, and sense of humor.  Being partial to the violin myself, I can only be awed.  He can innovate because he’s at the zenith in ability and discipline, the husband and I agreed.

Then there’s television director Bert de Leon, he who manages Eat Bulaga.  The other members are Cash Manalang, the soloist, and Roy Marinduque, the lead guitarist.  They all play the guitar and sing Beatles songs like the Beatles themselves; truly a trip down memory lane where one can skip the boulevard of broken dreams and avoid the street of shattered schemes.  The band is truly worth one’s while, 400 bucks at the Hard Rock Café in Makati be doomed.

(2005)