Last night the festivity started quite late at already past 10pm with the habitual music room early bird personalities notably missing in action after a few successive weekends of being punctual. A completely different batch of guests comprised the Friday jam, early on, with a handful of newbies showing up. Some regular guys did make it but did not really stay very long, much less jam on stage, except for a few who stuck it out till closing time. The young breed of musicians who had lately become consistent were elsewhere at another gig and just caught up towards the end. It was quite a subdued evening for a Friday night. Nonetheless, despite the slow night, the festivity still came into its conclusion by 5am.
It was great to see Maryana Arinez and newly wed Arlene Zabala Pascua (now Mrs. Orth) of Marmalade back in the room after such a long time. Maryana had been absent for some months while Arlene must have been gone for at least a year already. We wish Arlene the very best as she embarks on her tedious quest and ambition to migrate abroad to join her husband, Warren, in Alberta, Canada before the year ends.
The jam kicked off with Arlene on keyboards and 2nd vocals, Maryana on Saxophone, Ethan Smith (Maryana’s nephew) on drums, Papo Xavier on lead vocals and Rick and I alternating on the bass. Not knowing what to play, we ended up doing Papo’s usual repertoire of 90’s classic songs and his favorite OPM medley. It was a short but sweet set for the first batch on stage.
After a long lull (an hour at the least), despite short numbered in musicians, we decided to jam some more to liven up the evening as it was still quite early. Rick decided to play his usual familiar repertoire of Sting, Bill Withers, U2, Modern English and his favorite tagalog song to start off the 2nd wave.
The jam persisted and progressed somewhat when Ryan Pineda of the Monotones showed up to beef up the roster and played the guitar and then the keyboards. Balik-music room Stephanie Salazar, who was in the house too, gamely joined the band and rendered some blues vocals and at times played the drums.
Just before closing time, young female guitarist and composer Pau Villanueva walks in fresh from her gig at Guijo, Makati, along with her group of music room newbies she had tagged along to watch. It was already past 4am when she got up on stage and was just able to briefly jam before we finally packed up. It was all good for her, as she was already visibly spent and fatigued from her previous gig engagement.
I was actually expecting some other house band guys to come over but did not make it for some reason or the other. Would’ve been a different story altogether. No worries, as there is always next time.
Special mention to Macau based and Air Force brat Red Aquino, Nikki Segundo, Boots Bautista, Girrard Jison and his good friend Joey Lopez, to Tisoy and Iñigo Henares & company for their presence. And lastly but not the least, to Toby Alberto who showed up and generously shared some mouth watering Lechon Manok and chicharon to all the hungry. And yes, I forgive you for not bringing some of my favorite Shakey’s pizza flavor…hahaha! Again, there’s always next time.
To summarize, it was a simple and mellow night, but a blessing just the same. As always, i praise and thank God.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE! GOD BLES US ALL!
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