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How Bob Aves discovered the kulintang and translated its car body shop sounds into his own distinctive music
(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)IN theory, combining indigenous tribal music with modern pop sounds like a good idea, sariling atin and all that.
In practice, the results are often half-baked, and not exactly what Marc Bolan of T. Rex meant when he suggested that we get it on, bang a gong!
Listening to most ethnic-influenced bands is a little like having to eat your veggies: The effort is undoubtedly good for you, but lets face it, wouldnt you rather be having a double bacon cheeseburger and listening to Abba? (I know I would.)
Ever since Asin introduced the sound of the kulintang in Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan way back in the late 1970s, Pinoy musicians have been trying to get back to their pre-colonial roots, with varying degrees of success.
When I first heard the kulintang, it sounded like a car body shop to me, says jazz guitarist and composer Bob Aves. It didnt make any musical sense to me. Ang ingay.
Aves initial reaction was understandable. Born and raised in Bacolod, he had studied for two years at the UP College of Music in Diliman before enrolling in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, which is to jazz what Juilliard is to classical music, a Mecca for serious musos.
He graduated from Berklee with a degree in composition in 1979, and returned forthwith to the Philippines where his efforts in Ellingtonian jazz orchestration were met with much head scratching by local jazz audiences, who just wanted to hear George Bensons Breezin and Spyro Gyras Morning Dance.
A hit of sorts
Frustrated by the local jazz scene, Aves retreated to the studio, where he earned his bread and butter as a much sought after musical arranger. In 1990, he even had a hit, of sorts, in the radio single Amoni, which received heavy airplay on the CityLite FM station.
People thought it was Portuguese, he says. They didnt realize it was Ilonggo.
Anyway, steeped as he was in the Western musical tradition, Aves couldnt be further away from indigenous Philippine tribal music.
That is, until he met Grace Nono.
Although she had fronted the Blank, a Baguio-based rocknroll band, the Agusan del Sur-born Nono had begun to immerse herself in the musical traditions of the Manobo and the other tribal cultures of Mindanao. Her initial experiments in tribal fusion resulted in the groundbreaking album Tao Music, released in 1992.
After they met in the mid-1990s, Aves became her musical director, and then her husband, in that order. The couple formed Tao Music, an independent record label, for their own musical output. Tao Music would also be the vehicle for their deeper journey into indigenous musical traditions. Among other things, they embarked on a series of projects that brought maestros of indigenous music, such as kulintang expert Aga Butocan, into Aves recording studio.
In any case, Aves began to listen more closely to indigenous music, and he began to hear the skill behind the car body shop. For one thing, Nonos touring band soon expanded to include authentic tribal musicians in its attempt at a pan-Philippine fusion.
We realized that you cant really teach the usual bohemian guys how to play ethnic, so we got two Maguindanao and two Kalinga musicians to join us, says Aves. They play the real thing.
Although they seldom get to perform locally, Nonos ensemble is much in demand in the international world music festival circuit, where interaction with similar groups from other countries adds a further global dimension to their sound.
But Nonos ensemble is a worldbeat fusion group. As musical director, Aves has to keep his own musical impulses subordinate to Nonos vision. In order to get his jazz kicks, Aves had to turn elsewhere.
In 2000, he recorded and released his first album, titled Inner Country, which reflected his initial attempts to fuse indigenous musical influences with jazz. In hindsight, he considers it a transitional work, done before his own immersion in indigenous music began to bear fruit.
Filipino coloring
It was about 80 percent American jazz, plus 20 percent indigenous Filipino coloring, he says.
He is obviously much more satisfied with his current album, Translating The Gongs, which he launched without much fanfare at the 1st Philippine Jazz Festival last January.
Most people think you dont need to study ethnic music, says Aves. Just play the kulintang, and thats it. That was how I thought when I started, too. But the indigenous musicians kept telling me, Youre using our instruments, but you dont bother to learn the pieces that were meant to be played on them.
I realized that I had to start from the guitar, which my teachers at Berklee used to tell me is my voice, he says. When I pick up the guitar, I play bop. Its second nature to me. In fact, I dont know how to play anything else.
Aves had been listening closely to Karatuan Kalanduyan, the ensembles Maguindanao kulintang and kudyapi player, and realized that the forms and scales he used had no counterpart in Western music, although they were very similar to scales used in many Asian cultures.
Surprisingly hard
In order to produce the sounds he heard in his head, he also had to reinvent the guitar. For most of the new album, Aves plays an octavinayes, that staple of the staid rondallabut one specially modified with 12 strings instead of the usual 14, a more precise fretboard, and an expensive pick-up for amplification.
Ah yes, the amplification. The first thing you notice about Translating The Gongs is that it rocks surprisingly hard. In fact theres a definite, 70s fusion vibe about it, that is, before the word fusion became synonymous with Kenny G lobotomy music.
Thats where I came from, says Aves. In fact, I consider it a revival of the 70s, that age of discovery, Miles Davis fusion period.
It certainly helps that Aves managed to assemble a crack team of seasoned musicians. Apart from Karatuan Kalanduyan, Mlou Matute and Grace Bugayong on gongs, the album also features Dan Gil on saxophones, Tony Maigue on flute, Roger Llado on trumpet, Joey Quirino on piano, Simon Tan on bass, Koko Bermejo on drums and Bo Razon on percussiona virtual whos who of the current jazz scene. Of course, Grace Nono is featured on vocals, together with Faisal Monal.
For all their experience, however, the musicians had to stretch their abilities in order to play the pieces, which were based on Maguindanao scales not found in any music school chord book.
You have to have a certain kind of exposure in order to see what youve just heard on the kulintang and how to translate it into jazz, says Aves. Thats why I call it translations, Im really just translating what Im hearing into my own world. Its like youre talking a different language suddenly, because you have to translate a whole world of idioms.
For Aves, its all part of a process of musical maturity, which ran parallel to his own maturation. The deeper he got into indigenous musical traditions, he realized, the more unique his own music became.
Everything became clearer when I turned 50, he says. All the things I had learned started to come together.
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