Trancending all the bounderies into infinite possibilities..
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
YOYOY VILLAME" FILIPINO NOVELTY GENIUS!
Born on November 18, 1932 in Calape, Bohol, Yoyoy barged into the music scene in 1977 during the Martial Law years. He became a national figure in 1977 with his near anthemic “Mag-exercise Tayo,” which has been adopted by government agencies and public schools as the official music for their Monday morning exercise after the flag ceremony.
He blended Filipino folk melodies, popular tunes and nursery rhymes for his music and then added witty lyrics that mixed Tagalog, Cebuano and English in a form of grammar that he concocted.
Roman Villame in real life, the Bohol-raised Yoyoy experimented and recorded many songs in the Bisayan dialect.
known for his humorous take on the Filipino way of life & Famous for his Novelty classic Abuchikik, a unique song driven by a catchy melody and seemingly unintelligible words he allegedly came up by writing down the names of Chinese stores while waiting for a mechanic to fix his broken-down jeepney in Manila's Chinatown .he also wrote a dusty pinoy funk gem song called trapik' with its heavy drum breaks & killer conga grooves that is absolutely amazing!
The youngest among ten children of a fisherman father and fishseller mother, Villame started composing songs for the Boy Scouts in his elementary days. Dropping out after his second year in high school, he enlisted to become a soldier-trainee of the Philippine Army. Being unhappy in his post in Pampanga, he asked for a discharge after the surrender of rebel leader. Villame would become a passenger jeepney driver plying the Baclaran-Pasay Taft-Santa Cruz-Dimasalang route. During the ten years of driving jeeps, he would compete in amateur nights held at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo but only to lose because of his strong Visayan accent.
In 1965, Villame went back to Bohol to become a bus driver of the MB (Meneses-Butalid) Liner fleet, He could compose and sing the names of different towns of Bohol in an instant! There is no need for a ball pen or paper, right there he could compose the lyrics and give the melody!Yoyoy admitted that his life was mean in the province. He even confessed that most of the people are poor and they look for a job in another place or join the guerilla rebel army. He could be the best guide in Bohol where he had a bus numbered 13 that plied the Tagbilaran-Ubay-Talibon route. At the bus company, he formed with some fellow drivers the MBs Combo, a rondalla band where he sang and played the mandolin. He was soon invited to parties and eventually as an entertainer in fiestas, baptism, weddings, funerals and special events. The owner of the bus company took notice of Villame’s efforts and set up a music studio named Kinampay Records, after a local dish, just for him. Villame's first recording was in 1972 and entitled Magellan, a parody of historicism of Ferdinand Magellan's failed conquest of the Philippines. This became the top-selling record in the Visayas-Mindanao region. Comedian Chiquito recognized his potential and brought Villame to Manila to be signed to Vicor Records, which re-issued most of the Kinampay catalogue. Touring Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and other parts of Luzon helped Villame establish his name in the country.We Celebrate Yoyoy's contribution as a great novelty singer-composer & a true filipino genius. he touches the depths of the true filipino soul & spirit . Perhaps nobody has done more to carve the date of the “discovery” of the Philippines in the minds of the populace than a comedy singer, former public utility driver, and incumbent elected councilor of one of the boroughs of Metro Manila.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
NOW BATUCADA" AND THE BEAT GOES ON
Started out independently & sprung from a group called Bato-Balani (circa 1972), that played at the U.P. Los Baños auditorium and the Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center. also a back up band of bong penera, the batucada meaning (the beat) produced 3 albums, one of them is a record collectors goldmine called "A Samba Song", under the defunkt Penny Rose label & was released in 1976 for distribution by Vicor Records to an enthusiastic record-buying crowd. The spare but inspired effort, featuring Peñera's compositions and arrangements, reflected the influences of Luis Bonfa, Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Walter Wanderley and other stalwarts of Samba. They performed regularly in a restaurant/inn called Pension Filipina, situated along the bohemian scene of Jorge Bocobo Street in Ermita, the gathering place for both the art crowd and the young social set.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
SUSIE IBARRA" THE ELECTRIC KULINTANG
Susie Ibarra is a Filipino American Percussionist, composer, and improviser of jazz, opera, experimental, and avant-garde music. She is probably best known for her work as a free jazz drummer, and is noted for her dynamic range and expressive technique, as well as her incorporation of diverse styles and influences, such as kulintang, gamelan, spoken word and electronica. She was voted "Rising Star" in the 57th Annual Critics Poll (2009) of DownBeat Magazine in the Percussion category.
She learned to play piano as a child, and played drums for a punk rock band while in high school. While at Sarah Lawrence College in the late 1980s, Ibarra attended a Sun Ra performance which she has credited with kindling her interest in jazZ.
SPEED GLUE & SHINKI" Heavy Freak Fuzz from the far east..
"Speed, Glue & Shinki" is a psychedelic rock power trio formed in 1970 by guitarist Shinki Chen, and Ikuzo Orita, the president of Polydor Records. with former Golden Cups bassist Masayoshi Kabe, and Filipino singer-drummer Joey Smith, whom Shinki had discovered performing at a shopping centre in Yokohama. The band took their name from Smith's use of amphetamines, and Kabe's interest of sniffing Pro-Bond glue during the 1960s. Speed, Glue and Shinki released their debut album Eve in 1971, but immediately split up as Shinki and Kabe couldn't tolerate Smith's personal life. After they disbanded, a large double-LP was independently released by Smith, titled Speed, Glue & Shinki, which was mostly the work of Joey Smith; sampling guitar recordings of Shinki from previous studio work. However, it also featured two unreleased songs titled Sniffin & Snortin, and Run & Hide which had been recorded for Eve but cut from the final release, as they did not fit the album's overall sound. Thereafter, Shinki took a disliking to recording music, and decided to become a live musician only; which he continues to present day. Kabe continued his own successful music career, while Smith reinvented his stage persona as "Pepe Smith" and returned to the Philippines, where he has become something of a phenomenon with his Pinoy Rock group, Juan Dela Cruz Band. [3]