A night of intense jazz music




The French Spring in Manila celebration opens with a night of intense and soulful jazz music during the 3rd Manila Jazz Festival on June 3, 7 p.m., at the Expo Exchange, 2nd level, Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Makati. Taking center stage are the Jewelmer Jazz Band, Subconcept, Johnny Alegre Affinity, Satya and Jaime Oehlers’ Quartet.


The bands who will perform this year come from multi–cultural backgrounds and varied influences — a reflection of this year’s theme "United in Diversity."

Jewelmer International Corp. and Air–France–KLM with BNP Paribas are organizing this year’s festival, in association with Ambassade de France Aux Philippines, Alliance Francaise de Manille and Association Francaise d’Action Artistique.

Jewelmer Jazz Band is composed of Popoy Valmonte (trumpet and vibraphone), touted as the Louie Armstrong of the Philippines, Jun Cadiz (piano) of the Jazz Friends, Michael Guevarra (sax) of the Sipol and Guarana band, Abing Lavapiz (bass), Ronnie Marqueses (trombone), Arwin Nava (percussion) and Floro Sernande (percussion and flute).

The band has performed at the 1st and 2nd Manila Jazz Festivals while some of its members teach at the UP College of Music.

Subconcept is a group of musicians in their teens and early 20’s led by Jacques Christophe Branellec (tenor and alto sax) who play the four types of saxophones: baritone, soprano, alto and tenor. Other members are Daniel Crisologo (guitar) who has his own guitar group under his name and plays for the pop–alternative band, Mojofly; UP music student Nikko Rivera (keyboards); Francis Magat (bass) who also plays for the Salindiwa band with Rivera and Rey Vinoya on drums.

The group plays original compositions and covers materials that run a funk, contemporary jazz fusion with a bit of rock n’ roll.

The Johnny Alegre Affinity consists of Manila’s high profile jazz musicians including noted sax player Tots Tolentino who has collaborated with Asia’s top jazz musicians including premiere guitarist Eugene Pao.

Joining him are Johnny Alegre (guitar) who is one of the founding members of the UP Jazz Ensemble; veteran slinger Colby dela Calzada (acoustic bass), Ehlmir Saison (piano) and Koko Bermejo (drums).

Band leader Alegre describes their music as "jazz mainstream with an ear for sonic demands of young listeners and adventurous audiences." Their repertoire includes all–original compositions with influences of funk, bebop, and swing.

The fourth band, Satya, is composed of young musicians of various nationalities who met in Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Members include Marcos Sainz (piano and keyboards), a Filipino–Spanish music scholar at Berklee; Spanish musician Juan Galliardo (piano and keyboards) who teaches jazz piano; African–American vocalist Angela Rolling whose music focus lies in R&B, neo–soul, blues and pop; Brazilian Miguel Gandelman (tenor sax), Russian Alexei Gordeev (alto sax), Voro Garcia (trumpet), another Spanish musician who did classical studies in the Conservatorio Superior de Castellon; American drummer Jeriel Johnson who is a former member of the International Band of America; American multi–instrumentalist Louis Cato (bass, drums trombone) who teaches and works as a session musician.

Satya’s music is a combination of funk, jazz, soul and R&B.

Finally, Jamie Oehler’s Quartet is one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians. Jamie Oehler (tenor sax) is the first prize winner of the 2003 White Foundation World Saxophone Compositions and a recipient of the James Morrison Scholarship and Western Australian Music Industry Award for International Achievement.

Completing the members Samuel Keevers (piano), Rodrigo Aravena (bass) and Ben Vanderwal (drums).

The group will perform original compositions with influences of jazz, latin, drum and bass, free blowing, Ornette style.

Admission is free and open to the public