The quirky, playful Jason Mraz
JASON Mraz and Raining Jane PHOTO COURTESY OF OVATION PRODUCTIONS/MIKE MANABAT
“Inhale … exhale,” Jason Mraz—looking laid-back in jeans, a raglan baseball shirt and his signature fedora—instructed the packed (and tickled) crowd at Smart Araneta Coliseum. They did as asked without hesitation. “Breathe in and out….”
Between deep draws and expulsion of air, not a few started giggling, perhaps wondering if there was a punch line to the hilarious exercise. “Now, you can say that tonight’s show was breathtaking!” Mraz cracked, eliciting a roar of cheers, laughter and applause.
Throughout the show, the US singer-songwriter captivated the audience with his boyish charm, quirkiness and playfulness—among the words that also describe his music, which filled the air and everyone’s hearts for a little over two hours.
Girlz II Men
Mraz, who started on the path to mainstream success in the early 2000s with his hit, “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry),” was backed by eclectic rock-folk band Raining Jane, with whom he has written songs and played gigs these past several years. The group collaborated with Mraz on the latter’s new album, “Yes!”
“I’ve wanted to be in a girl group since I was a little girl,” Mraz jested. Then he struck cheesy poses with the girls, leaving the crowd in stitches. “We’re Girlz II Men!”
Women, young and old, comprised a large part of the crowd. That wasn’t surprising for percussionist Mona Tavakoli. “He’s a very powerful man; he affects the ladies,” she deadpanned. “We tried not to faint the first time we met him in 2006. But we did— and when we woke up, it was 2007!”
Gentle burn
Swaying to the rhythm, Mraz—acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder—opened the concert with the slow and gentle burn of “Life is Wonderful,” which faded into “Everywhere,” with the two-time Grammy winner singing in that distinctive semi-rapped beat.
“The Dynamo of Volition,” a number that Mraz said he did not understand, was a head-bobbing mumbo-jumbo of sounds and abrupt tempo changes. Making the number even zanier, he taught the fans goofy dance moves that involved a lot of arm-waving. Then he played a bluesy cover of the Eurhythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These).”
Sing-along
The first resounding sing-along came with Mraz and Raining Jane’s rendition of his hit duet with Colbie Caillat, “Lucky,” which the performers spruced up with a funkier arrangement, a little bit of staccato singing and a sweet dose of doo-wop. Then, quite unexpectedly, the group mashed the song with “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss.”
Mraz, who was in Manila for the fifth time, has a deceptively powerful, versatile voice: He can gently caress notes (as he does in “A Day to Remember”), scat (“I Take the Music”), belt out a riff and inject a falsetto (“A Beautiful Mess”), and even mimic a soprano (“Mr. Curiosity”).
More than support
To call Raining Jane—Mai Bloomfield (vocals, guitar, cello), Chaska Potter (guitar, vocals), Tavakoli and Becky Gebhardt (bass, sitar)—merely a support band is a disservice to its members, who were every bit a part of the music.
They provided sweetly woven vocal harmonies and skillful, multilayered instrumentation that brought new, interesting flavor to some of Mraz’s older hits. Their breezy solo set, which included the soulful “Opposite of Blue,” was met with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for the main act.
Sharing stories
When he wasn’t singing, Mraz was giving amusing nuggets of wisdom (“If you have writer’s block, write about writer’s block until you write yourself out of it”) and sharing stories about his advocacy—climate change and environment preservation. He showed a video of his recent trip to Antarctica as part of the Climate Reality Project.
Mraz’s performance of “I’m Yours” had everyone singing along—some banging their arm rests—and the affecting ballad “I Won’t Give Up” prompted the fans to fire up their phones and hold it aloft, creating an illusion of a starry, starry night.
With the crowd on its feet, Mraz ended the show, mounted by Ovation Productions, with a cover of Boyz II Men’s “It’s Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” whose lyrics he tweaked to, “It’s so hard to say goodbye to the Philippines.” But he promised to return. Taking a final bow, he said, “Kita-kits!”
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