entertainment - Zest-Air Inflight Magazine

E N T E R TA I N M E N T
Boy Katindig
Jazz Crusader
B y
D e n n i s
V.
G a r g a n t i e l
When you hear “brain drain,” you think doctors, nurses and
engineers. Few would think jazz musician. Or double-platinum album
bestseller. Or multi-award-winning artist, composer, arranger and record
producer. Or eventual recipient of an Awit Lifetime Achievement Award.
Only after Boy Katindig returned to his homeland after 25 years of
strutting his stuff abroad and reprised his signature song “I Will Always
Stay In Love This Way” live on wstage did many fully realize just how
much local talent we had lost to the US west coast jazz scene all those
years ago.
Boy was part of the huge, long wave of Filipino grey matter that opted
to migrate mostly to North America in the early to mid-80s because of the
political turmoil and economic uncertainty at the time. He was working
generally out of the country, anyway, because of the great demand for his
band’s brand of popular fusion music in Southeast Asia’s entertainment
capitals. Besides, his family - the renowned Katindig clan of world-class
musicians - was mostly already living abroad, and Romeo Jr. was, well,
a good boy. After a final concert with shakuhachi flautist John Kaizan
Neptune in Kuala Lumpur in 1986, Boy, with the advice of his father and
hero Romy Katindig - himself a jazz icon of the previous generation decided to seek musical growth in the US.
The country’s loss was America’s gain, as the US west coast music
scene welcomed Boy with open arms and quickly adopted him as its own,
and in no time was a regular attraction in San Francisco and Los Angeles
jazz haunts and touring both US coasts and Hawaii with jazz luminaries
such as Michael Paulo, former Seawind vocalist Pauline Wilson, Scott
Henderson, Paul Taylor, Regina Belle and Eric Marienthal.
In 1990, he produced and recorded his first US album with
established LA jazz artists and session musicians Abraham Laboriel, Phil
Upchurch, Gerald Albright, Russ Freeman and Brandon Fields, to name a
few. With Boy on keyboards and Pauline Wilson on vocals, the Michael
Paulo Band shared the stage with contemporary jazz headliners Jeff Lorber,
Tom Scott, Branford Marsalis, Peter White and Rick Braun in a couple of
LA concerts in 1995. He continues to be Paul Taylor’s main guy on piano
and keyboards when the popular smooth jazz sax stylist and recording
artist goes on tour, and his music, a staple in many US radio stations.
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E N T E R TA I N M E N T
Clarion Call
As early as 2009, on a visit to his old
Cebu stomping grounds, where once in the 70s
a long-haired 15-year old Boy started to play
keyboards with the legendary all-star Circus
Band, the erstwhile expat pianist and composer
announced in a press conference that he was
“coming back to my home country with the
intention of reviving jazz music that was gone
25 years ago. I aim to bring back the fusion
to modern jazz.” It was clearly a battle cry - a
clarion call for a crusade.
For, indeed, there was plenty of lost ground
in the local musical landscape to be reclaimed.
Gone were the halcyon days of the 70s and 80s
- an era of unprecedented musical growth for
local talents, when doing covers of foreign acts
- even if they were exact audio copies - finally
wasn’t enough, when homegrown artistry broke
out of its shell and local musicians realized they
were as good, if not better, than many of the
foreign artists hogging radio airtime.
On a broad spectrum, original Filipino
music was suddenly all over the place, making
an identity - or identities - for itself and gaining
wide popular support. With Hotdog in the
forefront, the Manila Sound was born (only to
kill itself within a decade or so with a plethora
of musical acts sounding so much alike or
shamelessly aping the Village People or some
other foreign pop formulas at the time, but
that’s another story), the youth counterculture
had Juan dela Cruz and Maria Cafra recording
hard rock anthems for local stoners, Apo Hiking
Society, Freddie Aguilar and Florante enjoyed
mass appeal, and Celeste Legaspi’s singsong
“Saranggola ni Pepe” was playing in everybody’s
head.
On the jazz front, while old-schoolers Romy
and Eddie Katindig, Emil Mijares, Lito Molina,
Tony Velarde and many of their jazz friends were
being kept very busy by the throbbing hotel and
club circuit, Ryan Cayabyab, Eddie Munji and
other young turks were breaking through radio
listeners’ thresholds with experimentations on
traditional Filipino songs and culture, Bong
Penera’s Batucada came out with Pinoy samba,
and of course, in 1978 “Midnight Lady” hit
the airwaves. Played side-by-side by jazz and
crossover radio jocks with Jeff Lorber, Deodato,
Clarke-Duke or Tom Scott, Boy’s first album
was so good artistically and so technically wellproduced that many people mistook it initially
as an American jazz fusion recording.
NO V EMBER - D ECEMBER 2 0 1 1
Before the great exodus, the Philippine
jazz scene was alive and kicking. Artists, venues
and events flourished, with abundant airplay
and support from many quarters, including the
American embassy’s Thomas Jefferson Cultural
Center in Makati. Boy recalls, “International
(jazz) artists were frequenting Manila. Jazz was
‘on’ six times a week with aficionados queuing
(at venue entrances) on weekends. Radio also
played an important role. The quality of jazz
was more varied and wasn’t just focused on one
of its aspects. It was never lounge-y.”
The Crusade
Making good on his promise, Boy
embarked on a series of projects last year under
his production company, Koolkat Productions,
starting off with the “Say What?” series of bar
gigs in Greenhills, Alabang and Makati, featuring
local R&B and fusion band Mo-Teef and vocalist
and old pal Maritoni Falconi. The response to
his homecoming was, as Boy describes it, “very
enthusiastic and excited… aficionados of the
70s and 80s are finally waking up and attending
events we produce.”
Pausing to survey the field, however, Boy
realized that there was still much work to be
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E N T E R TA I N M E N T
After the resounding success of the “Say What?” concert series, including the Bellevue
show where former Circus band mates Jacqui Magno and Pat Castillo relived the glory
days with an impromptu appearance on the Seawind classic “The Devil is A
Liar” with Maritoni, there was no more stopping Boy’s jazz crusade.
done, more battles to be waged, and local talent
to be discovered, nurtured and given a proper
showcase. “After several performances when I
returned, I realized that we have been left in the
dust in the 25 years I’ve been away. Very few
artists have albums with very little or no support
at all from the so-called ‘jazz community.’ He
bewailed the present reality that “the Philippine
artist has never been in the ‘forefront’ of festivals.
There’s more emphasis on foreign acts.”
And then there are the purists in the
local jazz community to contend with, who
need convincing to cross over and support
his crusade under one unified banner of
jazz. Comparing Manila’s doldrums with the
vibrant, evolving jazz scene on the US west
coast where he has been “in the thick of it,”
Boy presents a compelling argument for the
strictly traditional and straight ahead jazz
enthusiast to ponder, noting that “Smooth
jazz, which has been sadly dissed by so-called
‘purists’ in Manila, has been responsible for
most of jazz’s new listeners. There are large
attendees (at concerts) coast to coast and in
other Asian countries as well.” To drive home
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the point, he adds, “For example, Miles Davis
has joined this (smooth jazz) radio format
featuring a cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Human
Nature,’ gaining new listeners and followers. I
don’t think these so-called ‘purists’ are aware
of that.”
And there are wrongs that need righting.
“I also read a book floating around about jazz
in the Philippines. It was dubbed ‘the History
of Jazz in the Philippines’ based on the author’s
personal accounts and hearsays (but) sadly
missing vital information, resulting in a wrong
and misleading account of Philippine jazz’s
history,” the 2010 Awit Lifetime Achievement
Award winner pointed out, evidently aware
of his unique position to be able to rewrite
Philippine jazz history, or at least add a bright
new chapter, one that would chronicle his
homecoming crusade.
Gaining Ground
After the resounding success of the “Say
What?” concert series, including the Bellevue
show where former Circus band mates Jacqui
Magno and Pat Castillo relived the glory days
l NO V EMBER
- D ECEMBER 2 0 1 1
with an impromptu appearance on the Seawind
classic “The Devil is A Liar” with Maritoni, there
was no more stopping Boy’s jazz crusade.
Expanding the operations of his Las Vegas
based recording company to the Philippines,
Koolkat Productions Manila is crystal clear in
its stated jazz-centric mission “to promote and
bring back interest in the local jazz scene by
producing world-class concerts showcasing
both local and international jazz acts, promote
original Pilipino music by supporting mostly
independent local artistes, and promote cultural
exchange through jazz appreciation, education
and performances.”
After a couple of concerts in Las Vegas and
Los Angeles at the start of the year, including a
New Year’s Eve bash at the Bellagio in Vegas,
Boy was promptly back in the country, doing
“Back in The Day” at the Hard Rock Café in
Makati and the 2nd International Bacolod Jazz
Festival in February, flying to Singapore for a
quick concert with fusion super guitarist Scott
Henderson and famed Indonesian pianist and
vocalist Indra Lesmana in March, setting up
Boy Katindig Where Jazz Lives in Mandaluyong
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
in May, headlining the jazz stage of the French
embassy-sponsored “Fete dela Musique 2011”
festival at the Fort in June, and quickly following
it up with another collaboration, this time with
the American embassy, joining the “America
in 3D” Philippine road show in Baguio City in
July. He also guest starred in a Jazz-OPM night
with Rico J. Puno in the latter’s Makati bar and
grill.
Conquering New Territory
The crusade has since formally taken
the entity of a movement, aptly named “Boy
Katindig Where Jazz Lives,” and in August,
found its way to the Enton Centris Walk in
Quezon City, hosting free weekend concerts
that featured Boy joining young, up-andcoming jazz groups Jazz to Riches, Verve
Project and Next Level. It was also the site
of Koolkat Productions’ first major project in
Manila in September, the “Jazz at The Walk:
The First Manila Artiste Festival,” showcasing
original Filipino jazz music from our crusading
artist, the group Aquarela and noted Filipino
jazz guitarist and composer Johnny Alegre.
Meanwhile, Koolkat Productions has
been opening new warfronts in other parts of
the country. In August, Boy returned to rally the
troops in Cebu, founded the Cebu Jazz Society
and encouraged club owners to revive the jazz
scene and develop the city’s potential, given its
large volume of foreign visitors. Club owners
were inspired by Boy’s ‘inspection tour’ and
now share his dream of seeing patronage of
the queen city’s live entertainment circuit go
global. Boy’s production company has also
been making sorties to Angeles, Pampanga,
whose rich heritage as a live entertainment hub
enhances its viability for development as the
jazz movement’s northern front and the mining
of fresh jazz talents.
In the midst of all this activity, Boy also
found the time to help a friend in need, doing
a fund-raising show in Alabang in September
that coincidentally featured the reemergence
of long-time drummer buddy and skins legend
in his own right, Cesar “Kuba” Yumping. In
October, Boy found a formidable ally in jazz
pianist, bandleader, lawyer and entrepreneur
all-in-one Wowee Posadas, whose bar and grill
hideaway south of Manila, 19 East, is widely
considered to be the premier venue for Manila’s
musical artists, is where the movement a found
new home. Through the duo’s collaboration,
the Sunday evening jazz jams at the garden
restaurant’s Music Hall has been revived,
featuring new jazz talents such as Next Level,
Hard Hat Area and the NRML Project, with
host Boy Katindig himself joining in on piano
and keyboards in the show finales.
Boy is also in the process of writing
new tunes for another project, and with
the movement developing so many fronts
at the same time, added to his intermittent
commitments abroad, isn’t there a danger of
spreading himself too thinly? Not at all, as
this is where his advocacy of developing and
opening the door for new talents, and bridging
the gap between generations of musicians pioneers and new breeds - comes in, as Boy
hopes, with government and tourism support.
Since coming to Manila, Koolkat Productions
has been continuously on the look-out for
new talents that can break through Pinoy
jazz’s current boundaries. “My main goal is
to encourage musicians to write their own
material and push the envelope further with
new ideas and aspects of jazz. The new artists
will be the future of jazz in Manila,” promises
our conquering hero.
Because of his numerous and outstanding
achievements here and abroad, and in
recognition of his key role in the development
and evolution of original Filipino music in
his genre, the Philippine Association of the
Recording Industry (PARI) saw it fit to honor Boy
with the “Dangal ng Musikang Pilipino” Lifetime
Achievement Award in the 23rd Philippine Awit
Awards last year. Accepting the award that
has effectively formalized his status as a living
Filipino music legend, our intrepid crusader,
just in his young fifties, quipped, “It came quite
early, ‘cause I’m not done yet.”