MUSIC AND ME (June 25, 2015) MR. KAWABE IS BACK! ENJOYED 39 INTERNATIONAL SONGS

BACK IN PALAU AFTER 6 MONTHS
     Mr. Mitsuyoshi Kawabe enjoyed more songs this time, than his first time in January 08, 2015. He stayed in Palau for 9 days and enjoyed international songs rendered/sung by Roberto. Here, they are singing the song "Green Green Grass of Home" by Tom Jones.
                                           (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



          MR. KAWABE IS BACK!
                 ENJOYED 39 
        INTERNATIONAL SONGS

There is a function of "Kids Sea Camp" at Waves Restaurant's elevated center column so most of the in-house and walk-in guests are seated in the wooden area on that Sunday night of July 12, 2015.

I played for almost an hour and when they started the video presentation of Palau underwater wonders, I stopped playing and check the guests at the wooden area.

A new waitress pointed at me after talking to a lone Japanese guest. When that guest turn around, I am very much sure that it's Mr. Kawabe. 

I said to him, "Mr. Kawabe, you're back!"

We had some talks mostly about music. He's asking if I will play again. I said after the video presentation of the group, I'll play again. I show him the group enjoying the presentation especially the part where a hawks-bill turtle playing like flying and no care about some divers taking photographs and videos.

I mentioned to Mr. Kawabe that I featured him in the http://palau-chess.blogspot.com, entitled "Mr. Kawabe of Tokyo, Japan Requested "Moon River".

I know that the video presentation will last for at least 10 more minutes so I go to my room and get the link of that article:
  

http://palau-chess.blogspot.com/2015/03/music-and-me-march-26-2015-mr-kawabe.html

I wrote the link at the blank part of my old xerox business card. I asked him to check it out.

Then he gave me a list of requested songs -- 1. What A Wonderful World 2. Green Green Grass of Home 3. Moon River 4. Imagine and 5. I Can't Stop Loving You.

In the first song, I have to look at the score from the book given to me by my former employer at Dragon Tei, Yuriko Cho Irikedamoto.

While playing before the video presentation, Kay, the waitress come to me while I'm playing "Moon River".
She said she likes that song also.

After the video presentation, I was about to play the 5 requested songs when Jenica, assistant to the Sales and Marketing Department, requested "Moon River" also. I said to her that I will play "What A Wonderful World" first and then she look at the list and she saw the Moon River is written as Moon Liver. We both laugh.

Mr. Kawabe sits on a sofa near the piano and brought his coffee cup and listen to me closer. We sang together when I played "Green Green Grass of Home" and have 2 photos taken. The first one is blurred so I chose the 2nd one (above). 

Breeze Bar is closed at that time so I'm playing up to 11pm at Waves Restaurant of Palau Royal Resort until the renovation is finished. There are very few guests left so we enjoyed singing and playing his other favorite standard songs. We, musicians, call it in Philippines "standard" songs when referring to the songs of 1920's - 1950's. The 1940's was dominated by Frank Sinatra, the 1950's by Elvis Presley and the 1960's by The Beatles.

Mr. Kawabe gave me $10.00 tip on that Sunday night. He asked me if I like Japanese ramen and I said yes. He said he will bring me some. He didn't come on Monday night. When he comes on Tuesday night, he brought a Japanese ramen for me (1 pack - 5 pieces) and one for Executive Chef Daisuki Kunii.

Jovelyn Rodriguez and Kay want to have some ramen also but I gave the pack to my wife Flor and we cook the first piece on Friday night of that week.

Mr. Kawabe gave me another $10.00 tip on that Tuesday night. He sat at a table about 3 meters from the piano and transferred again to the sofa next to me while having his coffee.

He enjoyed the songs No. 17-24 in the list below and the rest on a Wednesday night where he gave me again another $10.00 tip.  

The other 34 songs that Mr. Kawabe has enjoyed in his 9 days of stay in Palau are: 1. Hawaiian Wedding Song 2. Mona Lisa 3. Tammy 4. Too Young 5. Love is a Many Splendored Thing 6. Love Letters in the Sand 7. Bridge Over Troubled Water 8. Can't Help Falling in Love 9. Yesterday 10. Vaya Con Dios 11. My Way 12. As Time Goes By 13. El Condor Pasa 14. Unchained Melody 15. Dahil Sa Iyo (Filipino Song) 16. Tennessee Waltz 17. Fascination 18. Edelweiss 19. Hello Dolly 20. Hey Jude 21. Never on Sunday 22. Those Were The Days 23. Over The Rainbow 24. Spanish Songs-Cielito Lindo 25. Historia de un Amor 26. Japanese Songs--My Way 27. Sukiyaki 28. Subaru 29. Kou Jou No Tsuki 30. Kimito Itsumademo 31. Koko Ni Sachi Ari 32. Como Esta Akasaka 33. Kampai and 34. Love is Over. 

On Mr. Kawabe's last night (Saturday), there are Palauan dancers performing also. Their day of performance is Friday (my day off), but because there are few guests on Friday night, they are performing also on Sat. night while it is low season.

In between my time of playing and their dancing, I took some photos of Mr. Kawabe and while he is talking to Chef Kunii...

Before proceeding to Breeze Bar to play for another 2 hours, I gave Mr. Kawabe my card while he is still talking to Chef Kunii.

HE LEFT BACK TO TOKYO ON THAT EARLY SUNDAY CHARTERED FLIGHT.

SEE YOU AGAIN ON JANUARY 2016, MR KAWABE!!!  

    

HERE'S THE STORY OF HIS FIRST VISIT TO PALAU:
 

ANOTHER LONE JAPANESE GUY
     Mr. Kawabe, from Tokyo, Japan, is all by himself sitting and dining. Then he requested 4 songs (assorted) and one of those is "Moon River". I've sung and played it to his delight and gave me $10.00 tip. I asked for his whole name and address in Japan which he wrote himself:    Mitsuyoshi Kawabe
                                                                                         2-58-10 Shiraitodai Fuchu
                                                                                         Tokyo, Japan

                                                 (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



MR. KAWABE FROM TOKYO, JAPAN
      REQUESTED "MOON RIVER"

AT ABOUT 8pm on January 08, 2015, there's a lone Japanese guy who sat and dined at a table nearest of the entrance of Waves Restaurant of Palau Royal Resort.

Later, he asked for a piece of paper from Pam (new restaurant supervisor) and requested 4 songs (Japanese, American, Filipino) and one of those is Moon River, from the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and one of the songs that I can play and sing as well.

Pam, middle, the new Restaurant Supervisor of Waves Restaurant of Palau Royal Resort and new Spa Manager Shirley of Mandara Spa pose for a photo session with Roberto on Jan. 07, 2015, a day before Roberto met Mr. Kawabe.      (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



  Since Mr. Kawabe is close to me (about the same distance with a lone Japanese guy that gave me $200.00 tip for playing "Kawa No Nagareno Yo Ni" and "Subaru" which made him cry in March 2008), I sang the song a little louder so that he can hear that I can play and sing it at the same time.

All his requested songs I was able to play without looking at the song books. Moon River is one of the songs that was composed by Henri Mancini. I remember 33 years ago, a Filipino guy requested "songs by Henri Mancini". If you don't know Henri Mancini, how can you play his songs?

Since then, whenever I am hand-writing songs to my song books, I always make it sure to put the title, original singer, year of the song and composer/s of the song.

When I was requested by an American old guy the song from "Dr. Zhivago", I asked him if he can hum the song so that I will know the tune of it. But he can't hum. Weeks later, my cousin Loving Dionisio told me that it's "Somewhere My Love" which we always play with the "Musikong Bungbong", a group of young boys taught to play musical instruments made mostly from bamboo. Since then, I always write also the movie where that song is the theme song.

MY ROOMMATE IN AUSTRALIA ALSO PLAYS FLUTE

Australia's top Grandmaster (GM) Zhong-Yuan Zhao, right, plays the real flute as hobby. He's the roommate of Roberto Hernandez during the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Australia where Palau was represented for the first time.

(Photo by Joselito Marcos)

MY STORY OF THE BAMBOO FLUTE

                                                            By Roberto Hernandez

It was in the early 1970’s that my third cousin Loving Dionisio asked me and my father (who passed away in 2009 at 92 years old) to make a bamboo flute out of a very thin variety of bamboo of about 22 inches long.

            My father did the heating of an iron bar and we started making holes in that thin bamboo called “buho”. Eight holes were made for left and right hand fingers (small (pinky), ring, middle and forefinger). There’s a need for extra hole near the end of the bamboo to balance the key pitch. A bigger hole for the mouth to blow and to produce a marvelous and soft sound especially if the one using it had experiences with blowing instruments like Loving, a music teacher and a Bb clarinet player in a marching band. He teaches “rondalla” to school kids (elementary and high school).

            His father, Marcelino ‘Ninoy’ Dionisio, was a music professor and teaches kids from rich family in Forbes Park and Magallanes Village. He can play with two saxophones in his mouth at a time! His eight kids all learned to play musical instruments or singers. That’s why they reach the finals of ABS-CBN “The Family That Sings Together, Stays Together” with Pepe Pimentel.

            Loving and his dad won numerous awards and trophies in playing instrumental music (sax, guitar, clarinet, ocarina, pan flute and our invention – bamboo flute.)

            My vast improvement in guitar playing was because of Loving, who taught me the chords while he’s playing the bamboo flute, a very rare and harder to play because there are some sharp and flat notes that need to be played with one of the hole covered only half-way.

            We became popular in our town as the “Matt and Jess” of Hagonoy, Bulacan in Philippines because of our size similarity to those two popular characters. Loving is short and chubby while I’m tall and skinny.

            We were invited to perform in Fort Bonifacio in front of military personnel and to other provinces even without pay just to gain experience and promoting the bamboo flute. Free transport and food is good enough for us.

            When we attended a town feast in Paombong, Bulacan, we ride in tandem on a bicycle with me pedaling it to save on bus fare so that we can play on stage on that night.

            My cousin Willy Hernandez also taught me some pointers in playing guitar. He plays the French horn in a marching band, mostly on funerals and feasts.

            When I’m working at The Plaza Restaurant in Makati in 1972, I go home only once a week. In that period, Loving formed “Musikong Bungbong”, a bamboo musical group. He was able to get the interest of neighboring kids and they joined the rare group. Bigger kids will play the biggest bamboo instrument as bass. The bigger “buho” alternating sounds with bass. He asked for my help to build a marimba out of fully grown and old “ipil-ipil” tree. Lots of experiments and drilling holes in the hard wood resulted in a very original marimba, to replace xylophone which is usually metal.

            I didn’t realize it then that by learning to play bamboo flute, guitar and marimba will make me be myself today.

            The “Musikong Bungbong” had its first hurdle when Loving met Paul Toledo in 1974. Mr. Toledo is the founder of “Pangkat Kawayan”, who became popular worldwide because of the rare kind of music that bamboo can produce. He threatened to sue Loving if he will continue with his “Musikong Bungbong”, that didn’t use “angklung” in the group. It is another percussion bamboo instrument that produces a sound by shaking it. In fact, it is used in every cultural show that the Polynesian Dancers are doing at The Plaza Restaurant. Before the end of the show, they will invite 8 guests to play 8 “angklung” (in Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti and Do tunes). The host will point to the person to shake it and they can play “Do-Re-Mi” with those to the delight of other guests.

            The meeting with Mr. Toledo somehow diminished Loving’s interest to pursue the promotion of bamboo flute. And when I worked in Palau in February 04, 1992 till now, I went home to Philippines only seven times, in 1993, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2009, (6 days only and 11 days in Australia) 2010, (6 days only and 16 days in Russia), and 2011.

            Loving suffered a stroke due to high blood pressure in mid 90’s and affected his hands. He can not play the clarinet and bamboo flute anymore. He also had hearing problem and he can’t afford expensive hearing aid.

            When I talked to him during my vacation in 2004, I have to shout so he can hear me.

            He passed away in 2009 and with a new development that’s going on, I might continue the legacy of “Musikong Bungbong” even in other country that can support its rare existence. Even to the extent of importing “buho” and other materials from Philippines if the other country doesn’t have that kind of bamboo grown locally especially that bamboo being use in making that flute because it is very easy to break.

            I would like also to keep its name “Musikong Bungbong” as a tribute to Loving Dionisio, a friend, a teacher, a father, a musician, an innovator and the biggest influence to my musical career.

 Source: Music and Me
                By Roberto Hernandez

                Tia Belau Newspaper
                Volume 21    
                Issue 18   
                April 05, 2012

I was also requested before by a guy of "Theme from "Cats", a Broadway Musical. A colleague (Francis, pianist), told me it's "Memory" by Barry Manilow or Barbra Streisand. I like the version of Barry Manilow that transposes the key of C three times and ended at key of E flat (Eb) while fading.

Since then, again!, I always put the "from the movie"... so that I will not forget where those songs became a theme of a particular movies. Some notable songs are "Looking Through The Eyes of Love" (1978) by Melissa Manchester that was the theme song from a very nice movie "Ice Castles" and composed by Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager; "Where Do I Begin" from "Love Story" (1970) Composed by Francis Lai and Carl Sigman -- this song starts with "Where Do I Begin, To tell the story of how greater love can be?"  
    Love Story is more popular than its original title "Where Do I Begin". All people that requested me this song said "Love Story" and never "Where Do I Begin".

That is how an original brand or title affected the mentality of some people... A boy was asked by his father to buy toothpaste at a variety store. He said, "Can I buy Colgate?" The saleslady will ask "What kind of Colgate?" and the boy will say, "Close-up".

A girl wants to buy soda (or soft drink), "Can I buy Coke?"
"What kind of Coke?" She will say "Pepsi".

Some Palau songs that derived from Japanese/Filipino songs get their title from the first lyric of the song. The Palau version of Japanese song "Kokoni Sachi Ari" was entitled "Arashi" because the first words of that song is "Arashi Mo Fukeba". The "Saigo No Iiwake" becomes "Ichiban" because the first word of the chorus of that song is "Ichiban" which means number one.  

Now, back to Mr. Kawabe. In his last requested song "Dahil Sa Iyo", a Filipino song which means "Because Of You", he sat near me and gave me $10.00 tip. Before he left, I asked for a photo with him. I said I might feature him in my "Music and Me" column at http://palau-chess.blogspot.com

I asked for his complete name and he volunteered to write his complete address in Tokyo. I wrote it on a piece of paper but somehow I misplaced it till now (June 30, 2015).

Sources: Music and Me
                By Roberto Hernandez 

                Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
                The Beginning of Chess in Palau
                By Roberto Hernandez
                To be published as a book in the future