Unbowed by a health challenge that forced him to cut short the opening night of his concert “Pure Energy: One More Time” on Friday, Gary Valenciano delivered a powerhouse performance on Sunday, proving why he remains one of the Philippines’ most enduring icons. On Saturday night at the hospital where Gary was being treated for dehydration, his wife,...
Tag: artist
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Discovering Clyfford Still, bold, brave, pioneering abstract expressionist
DENVER, COLORADO—As a fine arts graduate, I must confess that it was my first time to hear Clyfford Still’s name. Yes, I know the stalwarts of the Abstract Expressionist movement from Jackson Pollock to Mark Rothko to Helen Frankenthaler. But Still escaped my radar. And yet here he was, spoken with such ardor and respect...
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Portraits in Jazz: Faye and Bergan in Project Yazz
(Fourth in a series) At the height of the lockdown in 2021, while some were getting cozy with isolation and others were champing at the bit, popspoken.com, an independent online media outlet for art, music, and lifestyle in Southeast Asia, flagged Project Yazz as among the five “underground Filipino musicians” to check out asap. Online...
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Portraits in Jazz: Ronald Tomas, homeland and music
Second of a series “I just want to play,” says Ronald Tomas, band leader, arranger, composer, singer, and saxophonist—arguably one of the busiest musicians today who cross over jazz, R&B/ funk/rock/soul, and pop jazz stages with enviable ease, the sort for whom music is air and water. Ronald grew up in Pangasinan swaddled by music:...
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Portraits in Jazz: Tots Tolentino in the cool of the moment
(First of a series) EDITOR’S NOTE: With this piece, Jocelyn de Jesus starts a series of portraits resulting from conversations with stellar Filipino jazz practitioners—“in full bloom in their 60s and 70s,” she says, and “changing the game one gig at a time.” Mario “Tots” Tolentino’s household-name status in contemporary Philippine music is undisputed, having...
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Artist researching: Experience curves in Taiwan and Cambodia
A man in his rormork (the traditional and bigger version of the tuk-tuk) hovered near us outside the public market early one rainy October morning. We carried heavy backpacks and he asked in English: Need a ride? We actually did. But we had been accustomed to using the PassApp to book these local taxis. With...
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Always and ever: the Nora Aunor mystique
Does Adolf Alix Jr.’s “Kontrabida (The Villain)” winning a Netpac (Network in the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award for Best Asian Film) at the 6th HIFF (Hanoi International Film Festival) held in Vietnam early this month still merit attention? Of course. Not only is “Kontrabida,” the Philippines’ entry in the festival, directed by a prolific and...