Music Review: Slow start, fab end with Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin

It was a mystery why most Filipinos abandoned their fondness for jazz. Last night's concert at the PICC gave us an insight as to why this is so. At its worst, jazz can be pretty darned boring. Mystery solved. This is not to say that last Friday's jazz as played by keyboardist Dave Grusin, guitarist Lee Ritenour, bassist Abraham Laboriel and  drummer Chris Coleman was jazz at its worst. It was, however, mostly declawed, saccharine, non-threatening stuff and was, for the concert's first half, a tad boring. It wasn't until Dave Grusin played a solo rendition of his It Might Be You that ears perked up and there was a sigh in recognition of satisfying music. This tune truly is a beautiful song, and as played by its composer, a master musician, it stood shoulder to shoulder with pithy masterworks like Body and Soul and The Very Thought of You. After It Might Be You, the band went into Grusin's Mountain Dance, which was mightily applauded by the audience. No fireworks from the band, but this tune exhibited fine, stellar musicianship, especially from Laboriel, who turned in the finest solo of anyone onstage. Taking their cue from Laboriel, Grusin and Ritenour turned the heat up a notch or two and they, in turn, performed at a higher level. It was a transformative moment as their earlier halfhearted efforts were banished, and from this tune onwards, they both sounded fully present and committed. Next up, Laboriel played a solo bass rendition of Pasko Na, Sinta Ko. He sang the first few lines, then asked the audience to sing the rest, which they gladly obliged. It was a beautiful, magical moment. Goosebumps! This tune alone was worth the price of admission -- a beautiful song played beautifully and sung wholeheartedly by a ham audience. Because, truthfully, is there a single Pinoy who's not a closet ham at heart? For most of the evening, Ritenour showed all and sundry why for decades he's been considered the creme de la creme of L.A.'s session scene. His technique is impeccable, his execution flawless, his musical choices faceless. Someone once said that if you don't make mistakes, you aren't taking risks. Perhaps this may be said of Ritenour. Much of his music is virtuosic, flawless vanilla. It could use a bit of garlic. It’s a taste thing, so take it with a grain of salt. Be that as it may, it must be said that, on a purely technical level, Ritenour is difficult to match, much less beat. He's inhumanly fast, his technique flawless. And when he plays rhythm guitar, he's as tasty as anyone on the planet. Besides, 10 million Elvis fans can't be wrong; he’s doing something right. On their encore, Ritenour's Is It You, they brought up a guest singer, Chad Borja, and Ritenour seemed at a loss as to how to pronounce the guy's name, calling him, variously, Chard Bor-YA, Chad Bor-HA and Chad Bor-JA. A rose by any other name and all that jazz – though Chad was impressive by any name. The song's chorus lies in a tricky register for males -- too high for chest voice, too low for falsetto -- but Chad nailed it. And Ritenour gave us his finest, most soulful playing of the night, if not of the past two decades. Kudos to Planet Jazz for bringing in such top flight musicians. All in all, despite a ho-hum start, it ended as a good night of good music. — DVM, GMA News Aya Yuson is a guitarist. An old band of his, WDOUJI, set Manila on its ear back in 2002 with their debut album, "Ground Zero." The views expressed in this article are solely his own.