Jazz trio takes center stage

From left: Krina Cayabyab, Melinda Torre and Anna Achacoso-Graham of Baihana —PHOTO BY EDWIN BACASMAS

If you think pop songs these days lack the innovation, imagination and thrilling variety of the tunes that made the ’70s and ’80s excitingly diverse, you have to get a copy of Baihana’s eponymously titled debut album, “Baihana.”

We’re not just talking about newly minted covers and throwback tracks (“Java Jive”) that channel the sumptuous musicality of the Manhattan Transfer, or the exhilarating local color conveyed by the timeless OPM tunes of Ryan Cayabyab (“Mamang Kutsero”).

Simply put, the jazz threesome of Krina Cayabyab, Anna Achacoso-Graham and Melinda Torre is one of the country’s best singing groups. The fact that the girls often sing a cappella makes their music-making feat even more impressive because of the high degree of difficulty Krina, Anna and Mel execute with deceptive ease and aplomb.

Don’t get us wrong—the girls are partial to jazz, but their repertoire is far from phlegmatic, because they don’t just sing easy-listening tunes you can relax to or sing along with at the end of a long and tiring day. And, no, they’re not just for “seniors” who can’t relate to hip-hop or rock music.

In fact, millennials can readily embrace the playful irreverence and grassroots appeal of “Isaw,” and Baihana’s popping, frolicsome trills in the astutely imagined fusion of Alon’s “Pusong Bato” and Gloc-9’s “Sirena.”

Music lovers who are partial to catchy tunes that hew close to the Billboard Hot 100 “formula” will be entertained by the alluring harmonies conjured up by arranger Krina to breathe youthful and vibrant new life into Ariana Grande’s cleverly reinvented “Problem.”

Anna and Krina’s self-penned “Bintana” shows off the trio’s complementary voices and puts Mel’s soulful alto to clever use.

Mel demonstrates just how potent her showmanship is when she sassily interprets her composition, “Make It Hurt”—about the vagaries of falling in love and how high the stakes are when you get your heart broken.

Splendid solos

But the smooth, impassioned solos of Krina (“I Know”) and Anna (“Let Me Love You”), who sing the trio’s soprano parts, are just as idiosyncratically splendid.

Krina, who is the group’s musical director-arranger, finds a fine balance between old-school soul and contemporary music’s penchant for genre-breaching improvisation.

The trio’s 11-track album isn’t just about great music, however. “Chill” comes with a pertinent reminder for busybodies who refuse to slow down and smell the roses: “It’s a pleasure to have a beautiful mind that can pretend/ Take it easy/ Take some time off and chill…”

For jazz purists, Baihana’s version of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”—with “localized” lyrics by Krina—is as musically and vocally delectable as the 1981 jazz ditty, “Kafka” (from Manhattan Transfer’s highest-charting album, “Mecca for Moderns”).

Scaling the heights of “Donna Lee’s” complex melody as it pays tribute to the beauty of jazz music is a high-wire act in itself, and the girls’ scatting skills and vocal runs are second to none.

Its lyrics say it all: “Kung anu-anong tipa ng nota ang tinutugtog/ Bawat hakbang, skala’t kulot, parang ’di nauubusan/ Lalo na sa korda, parang ginusut-gusot and mga notang patung-patong/ Para makuha ang kulay na halos ’di mo na makapa.”

Of course, it’s better to watch the girls bend, tilt, compress and stretch those notes, but don’t take our word for it. You can catch Baihana live when Krina, Anna and Mel perform jazz standards, retooled pop favorites and cuts from their album in “B is for Baihana,” the jazz belle’s first major concert at the Music Museum tonight (call 8919999) under Joaquin Valdes’ direction.

Baihana’s special guests, Lani Misalucha, Nyoy Volante and Ryan Cayabyab, are major concert draws, but when these girls take center stage, nothing—or no one—else matters but their music.