Philippines

Tago Jazz Cafe Gets a New Home

                                                                                Five years ago, before my friend Ivon came to Manila for a visit, he did a computer search for jazz spots in Manila. Tago Jazz Café was the only name that came up. After he arrived he went to check it out and came back very excited. “There are all these young guys—not the old guys you might associate with jazz—who are very talented,” he said. A few nights later we checked the place out together. I took some photos, and the next day I interviewed Nelson Gonzales, the owner, cook, manager, handyman and drummer whose life’s work …

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Portrait of a Filipino Jazz Musician

  I first heard Ryan play the keyboard at Tago Jazz Café in Metro Manila, where he performed with his trio and with other groups, then later at the Ayala Museum. His work made me an instant fan, I think in part because of our love of Keith Jarrett, who speaks of improvising one note at a time. Ryan and I share a common view of inspiration, or, as my favorite music critic, Alan Rich, wrote decades ago in New York magazine, “I am neither a church-goer nor an atheist, and the reason I am not the latter can be …

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A Memoirist of the Marcos Years, Part 3

Susan Quimpo’s book “Subversive Lives” discusses the activities of her activist family during the Marcos martial law period. After the international edition came out, she made a book tour in the US, speaking with audiences of mostly Filipino-Americans about the Marcos period as well as the current situation with Duterte and the extra-judicial killings. This is an account of that discussion.