Springing Into Action–Kulintang Action!

Shakuhachi by Alcvin Ramos and Kulintang by Ron Quesada

April was a busy month for Kulintronica, setting the tone for what will no doubt be an exciting summer season full of festivals, collaborations, and kulintang playing.  Above is a picture from a collaboration with Filipino-Canadian virtuoso Alcvin Ramos.  The instrument he is accompanying the kulintang with is a digeridoo made from an Agave stalk.  Alcvin has studied digeridoo in Australia from indigenous musicians, and has also studied the Japanese shakuhachi from three different master artists from different disciplines!  This travelling musician connected with me and Lizae Reyes (of Kulintang Dance Theater) for a collaborative performance in Historic Filipino South of Market district called, “Shakulintang.”

Taglish feat. Karl Evangelista

Another collaboration in April was with another virtuoso musician, the amazing Fil-Am guitar player Karl Evangelista and his Grex ensemble.  It was a meeting of two musicians pushing their respective instruments into new territory.  I was personally challenged to find ways to bring the kulintang into his eclectic and sometimes manic sound fuelled by intense improvisational sections.

It was my pleasure to once again take the stage with Asian Crisis for yet another fundraiser to benefit tsunami victims in Japan.  After opening with an Asian Crisis version of “Ditagaonan” I switched instruments and finished the set playing electric bass wearing a malong.

Asian Crisis with Ron on Bass

Kulintang of Haranistas de Manila

Spring is also a very active and transformative time of year for California’s abundant population of Filipino college students as Filipino student groups across the state and the country made preparations for their respective “Pilipino Culture Nights” aka PCN.   I was a tender young bar musician when I had my first Filipino Cultural Music experience sitting in with the Haranistas de Manila for a PCN over ten years ago.  Like other Fil-Ams like myself, I was so intensely drawn toward Filipino culture after the PCN experience that I had to immerse myself as much as possible to learn as much as I could as fast as I could, gaining experience presenting the culture to different audiences in different contexts.

Pictured on the left is a snapshot of some of the percussion used for the “Southern Suite” portion of the Bayanihan-inspired repertoire.  Notice their hybrid kulintang set.  The older gongs with the darker metal are more vintage, and years of travelling and performing from Seattle to San Diego to Las Vegas serving traditional music to Filipino audiences throughout the west coast has damaged all of the gongs on this old set except for the two on the low side of this set.  Gongs from a newer hybrid alloy set fill in where the vintage gongs are missing.

Bayani Tan's Oktavina

Here is a close-up picture of the road-worn Oktavina owned by Celestino “Bayani” Tan of the prolific Tan Brothers.  Perhaps in a future blog a more complete telling of the Tan Brothers story will be posted that explains the tremendous contributions this family of musicians has made on the Filipino American musical landscape.

Cebuano Tortoise Shell Guitar Pick

On the right is a traditional guitar pick, made a long time ago from the shell of a Visayan tortoise.  The tortoise is cooked and eaten, and afterwards the shell is fashioned into jumbo guitar picks.  The texture is not unlike the plastic polyurethane guitar picks that are mass produced, and has a thickness and flexibility comparable to a medium gauge pick.

And finally, here is a picture of Skyline College of San Mateo’s Kulintang group performing at the grand opening of the new Multi-Cultural Building on campus.  Skyline College is a community college south of San Francisco in an area that is one of the areas most densely populated by Filipinos.  This community college boasts an accredited Filipino ethnic studies cohort and also kulintang class taught by my teacher, Master Artist Danongan Kalanduyan.

Skyline College of San Mateo Kulintang Ensemble

Kulintang in Asian America

Kulintang with Asian Crisis at the San Jose Museum of Modern Art photo by Jay Jao

I had the pleasure of performing with one of the groups that inspired me to dare to try new things with the kulintang at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival’s San Jose Gala.  The melodic percussive instrument from the Southern Philippines was featured on their self-titled album “Asian Crisis,” which was recommended to me at Clarion Music store of San Francisco Chinatown while I was buying my second kulintang set.

Formed by a group of Asian musicians from different countries, each one proficient in the traditional music of their heritage, coming together to create a truly Asian-American musical space where traditional songs from different cultures could be showcased while individual musicians could stretch their limits through long improvisational sections.

Bringing traditional melodies and rhythms together in a jazz-inspired context brings the Asian diaspora into the jazz continuum, something pioneered in the Bay Area and kept alive in the bustling multi-cultural arts scene even today.

The main Filipino staple in the Asian Crisis repertoire is “Ditagaonan,” a tune that is commonly known among Bay Area kulintang players.  Traditional versions of it can be found on CDs like “Traditional Music of the Southern Philippines” by Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble, “Manta Gowani” by Mindanao Kulintang ensemble, and “Kulintang: Ancient Gong-Drum Music of the Southern Philippines” by World Kulintang Institute.  Excellent contemporary versions have previously been recorded by the Noh Buddies, Goldar, and Asian Crisis, who produced two separate arrangements of it on the “Asian Crisis” album.

At the San Jose SFIAAFF Gala reception we set up our astonishing collection of instruments and I performed with Jason Jong, Masaru Koga, Van-Anh Vo, and Frances Martin.  Van-Anh Vo is an amazing performer who’s pushing the limits of Vietnamese music on her instrument the dan tranh.  Her new album “She’s Not She” is highly recommended.

Check out the Asian Crisis CD at Eastwind Books of Berkeley.

Check out Van-Anh Vo’s CD “She’s Not She” at her website.

Photos by Jason New.

This is the exciting artistic melting pot environment that Kulintronica is stewing in, and I am so excited as the light at the end of the tunnel of the album recording process almost comes into view.  As a preview, it is highly likely that the Kulintronica full-length album also has a new rendition of “Ditagaonan,” adding to the continuing vision of a new Asian music coming from America.

Asian Crisis SFIAAFF at San Jose SFIAAFF Gala

Here a gong, there a gong, everywhere a gong-gong…

Sambasia SF plays Binalig

As San Francisco celebrated the Rabbit with Lunar New Year, I reprised my role as guest artist with pan-Asian/Brazilian drum line Sambasia SF for an intimate performance in the Mission district at Eth-Noh-Tec’s “Salon You’re On!”  It was truly a pleasure playing music with this open-minded crew of percussionists who are so eager to test the cross-cultural waters by bringing traditional Asian musics to Bahia via San Francisco Japantown.  Also sharing their talent that night was Beth Grosman, Jenny Logico, Fay Chiang, and fellow live-looping-virtuoso-multi-instrumentalist Cello Joe.

Kitchen Agung

This weekend show took place just days after I returned from a brief but beautiful trip to the Philippines where I encountered more kulintang paraphernalia such as this beautifully painted vintage (heavy) agung that lives suspended above a fruitbowl in a kitchen in Quezon City.  Although the instrument is alone, it is played everyday at least three times a day before mealtime.

Gong Greeting at Restaurant

A side trip to the beautiful “City in a Forest,” aka Puerto Princesa in Palawan yielded many kulintang encounters on a large and lush limestone island.  One highlight was a fresh Filipino seafood dinner suspended over the water next to a grove of mangrove trees called Badjao, a Sama-themed restaurant complete with a dining room on stilts and a wooden gong replica at the entrance.

Wooden Railing Gongs

At yet another dining establishment called Ka Lui’s I found these wooden painted gongs tucked away on the ends of some bamboo banisters.  Ka Lui’s specializes in seasonal local faire with a daily menu and an art gallery atmosphere.  The sizzling special was my favorite; it tasted like a spicy Filipino-Mexican collision far beyond your Bay Area sisig tacos.

Viet Villa is a village within Puerto Princesa where Vietnamese refugees made new lives for themselves after their rafts drifted on natural currents from Vietnam to Puerto Princesa via the famed Underground River in Sabang, Palawan.  Displayed next to a beautiful temple were a drum and hanging flat gong.

Gong at Viet Villa, Puerto Princesa

Back on Luzon, the Bughaw Folkloric troup prepares for their weekly weekend lunchtime one-hour cultural program at the historic Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay.  In front of the breathtaking backdrop of concentric volcano lakes the audience smiled as Bughaw expertly moved through the suite, with vivid narrations and professional-level execution including live gong instrumentation!  I took a snaphsot of their gong setup just minutes before they took the stage.  It was a wonder to witness.

While I wish I could share a Kulintronica story in the Philippines, sadly this short trip was not for that occasion.  Still, a trip to the Philippines nourishes the Filipino American in a way that no other vacation can.  The archipelago inspires me endlessly and I approach the coming festival season with these memories in my heart.

Bughaw Folkloric gongs

Kulintang Electronica meets Filipino Vegan Restaurant

No Worries Eat Now Laugh Later

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it is not uncommon to see cross-cultural collaborations.  Mixed-race mash-ups sprout from the community like wildflowers in Spring.  If you were in downtown Oakland in January 2011 you would have witnessed one such collision: kulintang electronica with Filipino vegan food at No Worries’ event, “Eat Now, Laugh Later.”

Diners were treated to a delicious and healthy Filipino dinner while listening to the sounds of traditional kulintang playing layered over live guitar loops and electronic dance beats before laughing uncontrollably to a heaping serving of comedy delivered by Filipino comedic talent such as Andrea Almario, Herb Diggs, and Kevin Camia.

Diwa Kulintang Circle

Also, this month I performed with Diwa Kulintang Circle at a very exciting booklaunch for authors Virgil Apostol and Lane Wilcken for their respective books, “Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions,” and “Filipino Tattoos: From Ancient to Modern.”

Kulintang residing in West County

For a kulintang enthusiast like myself, the only appropriate reaction to encountering kulintang paraphernalia during the course of day-to-day living is to photograph them where they are.  Here’s a beautiful vintage set matched with a few orphan gongs for a truly unique playing experience.   This set lives in West Contra Costa County.

Gongs living in Berkeley

 

 

 

 

Another encounter took place the same day in another part of the Bay Area, in Berkeley.  These gongs keep the house warm, living in the retired fireplace of a sunny Berkeley home.

No Bay Area site-seeing excursion is complete without witnessing some Filipino culture and a walk on the beach to contemplate the elastic distance that separates San Francisco from Manila.

Ocean Beach Sunset offering light rays from the Pacific Islands to San Francisco

‘Tis the Season to be Filipino

For Filipino cultural performers, the holidays are the last season of the performance cycle.  It all starts in spring with Pilipino Culture Night (PCN) rehearsals.  By the end of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, the busy festival-laden summer season gets into gear, with a heavy spike in activity around June 12th independence celebrations.  The end of summer is just the end of the first half of the performance season, because something very interesting happens once you get into the “-ber” or “brrrr” months–the Filipino holiday season has begun.

Rondalla (Filipino guitar ensemble) for Holiday cheer! With Albert Aumentado & Lendl San Jose

That’s right, September 1st is officially the first day of the Filipino holiday season, which means Christmas music plays for Filipinos two and a half months before the American holiday music season, which traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving.  In September, most of us Filipino cultural performers in California are still doing summer festivals, and many independent dance troupes begin working on their Fall Recital programs.

October is Filipino-American Heritage Month, so it is jam-packed with celebrations, showcases, cultural events, and now, Fil-Am themed major sporting events too.  In November the holiday motif becomes the main dish, with many Filipino Christmas themes present for Thanksgiving celebrations.  December is the main event, “Pasko Na!” (It’s Christmas time!), with midnight masses, family gatherings, gift giving, gift-shipping (by the box), and non-stop singing until the big night, “Nochebuena.”

Home-Style caroling with Lendl San Jose aka "'UkuLenny"

It doesn’t end there, folks.  In the Philippines, Christmas doesn’t end after opening Santa’s presents.  It continues until January 6th, until the Kings of Orient (all the way from the Pearl of the Orient?) get their chance to bring their gifts (pasalubong) to the manger in a foreign land.  This is where I mark the end of the Filipino cultural performance season, but the break is brief, because not long after January 6th, Filipino student association officers will begin the heavy lifting involved in getting PCN ready for spring, and some independent dance troupes will be polishing their repertoire for to audition for a spot at the prestigious San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.

Looking forward to a gong-tastic 2011!  Mabuhay!

A Typical Kulintang Sunday in the Bay

Performing Kulintang in the middle of Powell BART's Hallidie Plaza

A Filipino-American artist would love the San Francisco Bay Area.  Today’s blog post is an account of how I spent my Sunday supporting Filipino events, crossing bridges, and taking pictures of gongs.

ACPA summons the dancers with music

The day began with a new Filipino Festival, the American Center of Philippine Arts‘ “Fall Festival” held in Oakland Chinatown at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.  This one is a little bit different than your summer-variety gathering, smartly held during the apex of the autumn season, indoors.  Vendors set up behind tables instead of canvas picnic tents, and the audience could watch dance performances in the round with musicians playing from the stage.

This festival is a welcome addition for the East Bay Fil-Am community that does not have the luxuries that exist in San Francisco. San Francisco boasts four separate venues dedicated to the Fil-Am  community, while East Bay Fil-Ams roam from venue to venue like sea nomads in an archipelago.  Kudos to the Fall Festival organizers, let’s do it every Fall!

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Kulintronica at ACPA's Fall Festival 2010

I was unable to watch the other dancers, performers, and speakers, or participate in the Pangalay Jam that occurred towards the finale.  To keep up with the demand for Bay Area kulintang, I had to depart the festivities in Oakland and cross the Bay Bridge…

The Bay Area is itself somewhat like a collection of islands.  Each neighborhood, separated by ridges, valleys, and water systems, has a different climate and community, tied together by freeways, buses, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART).  The Powell BART station is a major downtown SF stop that takes you to the theater and shopping districts, and the South of Market neighborhood (SoMa), also known as the Filipino Social Heritage District, the site of our next adventure.

The Filipino community is deeply rooted in San Francisco, so when the city began a performing arts series at this heavy-traffic train station in the heart of downtown, it went to the premier presenter of contemporary and tribal Pilipino art, Kularts.  I have so much gratitude for Kularts, who in a previous era, had its own brand of kulintang fusion brewing, and today provides me with inspiration, encouragement, and support.

James "Ganyan" Garcia skate jamming with Kulayan

Kularts presented Kulintronica with the Kulayan Arts Program, creating cutting edge visuals direct from the Filipino American imagination.  Hanging out with these artists puts me in just the right mindset to pull Filipino traditions through the looking glass into the urban jungle.

The mixed crowd of commuters, shoppers, and homeless locals were all intrigued by what to them is a new and unusual instrument.  Heads were turning, small crowds gathered, and the boldest walked right up to the kulintang stand and asked questions in the middle of a song.  I welcome the interest and enjoy the wide eyes of music enthusiasts hearing a new sound.  To my surprise, a visitor from Las Vegas sat down to play an impromptu Kaluntang with me after a few words of encouragement.  I should have expected kulintang players to emerge out of the woodwork at a Kularts (formerly known as Kulintang Arts) sponsored event.

This double-header of kulintang gigs was a blessing in itself, but Fil-Am art is in abundance in the Bay Area, so despite having performed at two separate and successful Filipino events, it was time to go to event number three as a spectator.

Lendl San Jose with a gong electronic setup of his own

Over at the Bayanihan Community Center (one of the four SF Fil-Am spaces) was closing night for Aimee Suzara‘s “History of the Body” performed by the Pagbabalik Project.  Three years ago I was musical director for this collective and produced the recorded theatrical soundtrack for Pagbabalik (Return) with Diskarte Namin musicians Juan Calaf and Jen Soriano.

Their current work, History of the Body, is in the capable hands of Lendl San Jose, pictured here playing a beautiful silver-tinged gangsa gong while triggering samples in the pit.  His cello and ukulele are not pictured, but he played those too.  History of the Body is a thought-provoking piece about body image and the legacy of colonization told in a non-linear style accentuated by world-class acting, dancing, and music.  It stirred up emotional reactions from the audience and is a story that resonates beyond the Filipino community.

Thanks for tagging along with me on this re-telling of a typical Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fil-Ams can either have their choice of Filipino event to attend, or commit to a marathon commute itinerary and try to see it all.  I tried to see as much as I could, but even I was unable to do all of this and watch the Golda and the Guns/Julie Plugg show the night before.

Performing Kulintang During SF Giants Post-Season 2010

 

Kulintang October 7 2010 Giants home post-season home game

Being born in America in a Filipino family has its quirks.  As a young boy I was enrolled in Little League and wondered why all the other kids seemed to know so much about baseball.  Now that I’m older I can observe how baseball is such a big part of American culture in that it becomes an inter-generational activity.  American kids are taught the nuances of baseball by their parents.  What if your parents come from a country whose national pastime is cockfighting?

As a young musician cutting my teeth at Bay Area sports bars in a good old fashioned Top-40 cover band I spent many extra innings watching the crowd go nuts over baseball while I waited for the game to end so we could start playing music, and it seemed so foreign to me even then.  How could anyone from outside the culture jump in to the inaccessible drama of Major League Baseball?

Enter Tim Lincecum, the young misfit star starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.  I discovered him while playing a game on an iPhone called “Filipino or Not?” while waiting in line to watch a Bollywood at the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival.  A Filipino-American starting pitcher representing the city with the highest concentration of Filipinos?  Cooool…

Fast forward to the tail end of the Giants historic 2010 season, and it’s Filipino Heritage Night at the ballpark.  The Heritage Nights are the latest incarnation of the Filipino Festival, and it being a site for Filipino America, I was on the ground at AT&T Park in downtown San Francisco.  The Fil-Am Cy Young award winner didn’t pitch that night, but the Giants won, and so I decided to follow them.  Often times I had kulintang gigs on game days and would drive back to the kulintang studio in post-game traffic, discovering KNBR with Krup and Kuip on the way.

I was amused to learn that Lincecum’s nickname (palayaw in Tagalog) is “The Freak” because if his short stature and unique way of getting the job done… “very Filipino,” I thought.  Combine this trait with his mestizo appearance, a blemish on his police record, and the F-bomb, and you have a role model that I believe many Fil-Ams can identify with.

So today’s blog entry is dedicated to trailblazers like Tim Lincecum who, by excelling in their fields and becoming the best, brings confused Fil-Ams like me closer to mainstream America while raising the bar. Salamat, game na!