Blues Insurrection in the Boondocks

Thomas "Tomcat" Colvin

Special to Blues Access Magazine

For publication Spring 2000

            Way out in the Pacific Ocean,  an hour and a half plane flight from Hong Kong, lies the Philippines, a tropical nation of over 7,000 islands best known in the US and Europe for its beautiful girls and colorful jeepneys.  Little known outside of its capital city Manila is the emergence of a surprisingly vital blues scene in the country.

            The Philippines has suffered through a love-hate relationship with the US ever since it fell under US domination back in 1898.  While the country successfully ejected the American military bases in the early 1990's, a foreigner visitor to the capital city of Manila will find the sprawling metropolis of nine million very Americanized -- at least to a superficial surface examination.

            The country is known world-wide for its fine musicians.  In this nation of incurable romantics, pop ballads and disco dancing reign.  Aside from strong influences from blues-influenced rock in the 1970's, which helped launch a flurry of bands, the blues itself never took root here.  LaVern Baker, for example, who settled in the Philippines during the height of the Vietnam war, seldom if ever performed during her 22-year Philippine residency outside of the US naval base where she managed the entertainment for an officer's club.

            Today, in contrast, Manila is the home of the most active local blues scene between Japan and Australia, where blues has flourished for a long time.  A number of blues bands have stepped into the spotlight; venues are consistently featuring blues;  blues has been broadcast over nationwide TV several times over the past year; a blues radio show is entering its fourth year; and Manila is now preparing for its Second Manila Blues Festival.

            The current blues scene traces its beginnings to Binky Lampano, an icon in the local alternative music scene, when he turned his remarkable voice full-time to the blues.  To mark the closing of one of Manila's foremost alternative music clubs, he formed the Newly Industrialized Combo -- NIC, for short, a typical example of Filipino word play alluding to the phrase Newly Industrialized Countries so prevalent in the press at the time.  Intended as a one-performance band during the club's final week of operation, NIC made such an impact that it was immediately booked weekly into the city's most trendy yuppie bar and within a month found itself on the cover of The Philippine Inquirer Sunday Magazine, the nation's widest circulation Sunday newspaper supplement.

            After several months, the group disbanded, its members going their own ways as originally intended.  But the band had made its mark.

            Soon there emerged a basement band created by three socially prominent friends who had years before attended together the Philips Exeter prep school in the US back in the 1970's.  Bassist Apa Ongpin and guitarists Andy Locsin and Butch Roxas had played blues together back then, and suddenly they were re-infected with an urge to play together again.   Hiring several professional musicians to fill out the band and enlisting Locsin's niece Tricie Gomez as vocalist, the band was unexpectedly invited to audition at the Hobbit House, an important alternative music venue in the city for two and a half decades.  To their surprise, they were awarded a coveted Friday night weekly booking.  While in search of a name, the Filipino penchant for word play once again reared its head:  they called themselves the Blue Rats, a rather obvious allusion to the course Tagalog slang word burats, meaning -- if you are under 18, close your eyes -- "erect penis," or as the band members will tell you with a smile, "The Angry Dickheads."

            The band, with its collection of high-class family names and working-class class pro musicians, was an instant success and, probably more than any other single influence, lit the powder for the blues explosion soon to follow.

            Other bands began springing up in 1994-95:  The Soul Dredgers featured slide guitarist Joric "Delta Slim" Maglanque, who is deeply knowledgeable about early blues traditions.  The Mexicali Blues Band was formed by the yuppie blues-loving Mabanta brothers, both gifted musicians whose family owned the Mexicali food franchise, which became their musical hangout.  Mexicali brought onstage also two major guitarists from the 1970's, Joey Puyat, with his jazz inflected lines, and long-time American expat William Wirth, who plays solidly in the Chicago tradition.  And Crossroads, a group of journeymen pro musicians, chose a blues-heavy repertoire.

            Adding fuel to the fire during this formative period was "Cousin Hoagy" Pardo, who launched his weekly blues radio show Crossroads -- Where Blues & Rock Meet, and Bob "Blues" Magoo, who hosted the two-hour Blues Sessions late night show in cooperation with the San Juan Blues Club, a group of blues afficiandos.

            The Hobbit House, Club Dredd and Mayric's, three prominent alternative music venues, began booking these bands on a regular basis.  The buzz was on.

            Eddie Boy Escudero, formerly the manager of Binky Lampano's NIC which had started it all, decided to throw a blues bash for his birthday party, enlisting the blues bands of the day, along with some other top rock bands who were already beginning to add blues to their repertoire.  Among the performers were Joey "Pepe" Smith, a legend from the country's earlier band era of the 1970's, and Jun Lopito, regarded by many as the finest guitarist in the country.  It turned into a path-breaking concert, covered by MTV Asia.  Over the next year, three more blues concerts were staged at the Music Museum, the city's best small concert venue, with "Cousin Hoagy" playing the catalytic role.

            Binky Lampano, who after the demise of NIC  had spent a couple years in Los Angeles with his parents, returned to Manila in early 1996.  Having found acceptance for his gritty blues-belter voice in the blues clubs of South-Central LA, Binky came back with determination to pursue a full-time blues career.  He called together a couple of former musical associates and a young drummer and after a period of experimentation and rehearsal found himself with long-term bookings at the Hobbit House and 70's Bistro.  Lampano Alley, destined to be a major force in the local blues scene, was underway.

            All the while, blues was percolating in another rather surprising arena.  High school and college bands, along with neighborhood groups, found outlets to perform at Club Dredd and Yosh, clubs that had adopted a policy of booking upwards of 20 bands a night, who paid a fee of a couple hundred dollars in return for a place onstage and tickets which they resold to their friends.  A number of these bands, including Albluchri, featured pre-dominantly blues sets, tuning the ears of their teenage audiences to the blues.

            Some of the top rock bands in the country paid heed to these blues rumblings and began including more blues in their concerts.  Out of this mix emerged the Blue Jean Junkies, led by vocalist/harp player Nino Mendoza.  Up until then, the blues scene belonged almost entirely to older musicians, age 30 and above.  The Blue Jean Junkies, a group in their early 20's who performed mostly classic blues/rock along with a number of Chicago blues classics, aggressively carried the blues into venues new to the blues and attracted other young bands to take up the blues.

            Two especially notable young bands have emerged in the last couple of years.  Mr. Crayon formed as a high school band; its members are now college freshmen and sophomores.  Lead guitarist Viktor "Kakoy" Legaspi, the youngest of the group, has already established himself as "the" young guitarist in the country to watch.  His plays blues lines with sensitivity, feeling and remarkable maturity.  Formed within the last year is Huka, drawing together several young players who had been active in the rock circuit and featuring the most electrifying of the young vocalists, known as Cochise for his ponytail.  Two other young blues bands -- Wildwaters and En-Tone -- are occasionally active in the local clubs, though they lack the commitment and drive of their counterparts.

            Other bands are now in their formative stage.  Oral surgeon and guitarist Ted Nicholoff, once active musically back in the 70's, has formed a new group, drawing in several other "closet" blues players, including guitarist Mason Ring, originally from Chicago and one of the finest pure blues players in town.  Mel Orosa, whose club Bluesland lost its lease a few months ago, is salving his wounds with the newly-formed Blue Ribbon Committee Blues Band, which is exploring acoustic blues.  Balooze is a band of seasoned music professionals who take an occasional night off from the regular gigs to perform together as a very polished blues band.

            With all this activity going on, event promoters Tata and Lynn Francisco brought the bands and the venues together in a series of 12 weekly blues concerts, each featuring different bands and different venues -- and each recorded for a two-hour broadcast a week later during primetime.  The First Manila Blues Festival, mounted a year ago, explored the gamut of blues, including the established blues bands, several nights devoted to the jazz side of blues, featuring Bluesviminda, Majam and Ciao, and several nights of blues sets by leading rock bands Razorback, Triaxis, the Jerks, Jun Lopito and the New Suspects, Cowboy & the Bandits, and Spy, featuring Sammy Asuncion, previously known as “Sammy Blues” before he expanded his vision to reggae..

            The Blues Festival was capped off with Bo Razon & T. Tinio Blues Band.  T. Tinio was Manila's original blues band back in the 1970's, headed up by guitarist Razon.  Bo put together for the Festival a new T. Tinio, part for nostalgia, part for restating the enduring quality of the blues.  Again, there's something special about the name -- so prepare yourself.  T. Tinio sounds exactly like the Tagalog words titi n'yo -- no mistaking it -- which means "your penis."  Hmmm, the blues in the Philippines seems to be particularly phallic.

            "Our biggest surprise," says festival organizer Tata Francisco, "was the reaction of the people in the media.  We didn't realize they'd come in droves.  We were happy to see a lot of journalists are into the blues.  And they represent a younger crowd.  Maybe too they're tired of the same old thing."

            The newspapers were plastered with articles about the blues -- over 100 of them scattered among the city's  newspapers and magazines -- over a three-month span.  Over the same period, the sponsoring radio station aired 752 30-second promo spots.  After such success, the Francisco team is now perparing for the Second Manila Blues Festival.

            Local television has picked up on the blues too.  Concert in the Park, staged weekly at Manila's downtown park amphitheater and telecast the following week nationwide, featured Lampano Alley a year ago, and then in a real compliment to the blues invited the band back for a second performance in December as the Concert in the Park "Christmas gift" to its loyal audience.  Martin Late At Night, the Philippine equivalent to Jay Leno and David Letterman, also featured the Blue Rats and Lampano Alley in a nationally televised tribute to the blues.

            The blues faces exciting prospects in the Philippines at the beginning of the new millenium.  Still active are most of the bands:  Blue Rats, Lampano Alley, Blue Jean Junkies, Mr. Crayon, Huka, the Blue Ribbon Committee Blues Band and several others.

            And more venues are turning to blues.  The Hobbit House features blues three to four nights a week.  Opened within the past year by American expat Matt Barrett, along with some silent Filipino partners, is the Bourbon Street Blues Bar, with live blues twice a week organized by "Cousin Hoagy" Pardo.  Hoagy often features recorded selections from the performances on the blues radio show Crossroads and on his new show Rock of Manila.  Japanese-owned Blues Bands recently opened with a policy of blues and jazz Monday-Thursday, with pop on the weekends to earn the income to stay open.  Several other clubs feature blues once a week, including O'Reilly's, Freedom Bar, Fib's, and Heckle & Jeckle.  Yet other clubs, such as 70's Bistro, Mayric's, Mondo, Galos and the Backroom Bar feature blues for special nights each month.

            Perhaps most symbolic of the arrival of the blues is the surprising booking of a stripped down Lampano Alley for Friday evening acoustic sets at Conway's, the city's most popular Happy Hour at the premier five-star Shangri-la Makati Hotel.  And in the last stages of production is the Lampano Alley debut album, which will be the first all-original blues album ever released in the country.  On top of that, English expat songwriter/performer “Ka Roger” Pullin is preparing a blues album of his own for release late in the year.

            Blues has finally truly arrived in the "boondocks" -- which incidentally comes from the Filipino word  bundok meaning mountain, brought back to the US by veterans of the Philippine-American War a century ago.

THE AUTHOR:

Thomas "Tomcat" Colvin, an American expat resident in the Philippines for almost 15 years, took early retirement from his day job to devote full-time to the blues as harp player with Lampano Alley.  He currently divides his time between the Philippines and Mexico, where he also guests regularly with two blues bands.  He created the BluesAsia website [www.bluesasia.com], which tracks blues throughout the region.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER:

Eddie Boy Escudero managed bands, including Binky Lampano's original blues band NIC, before turning his professional attention to photography.  He is now known as the foremost music photographer in the Philippines.  His blues bash birthday party was instrumental in igniting the blues movement in the country.