A brilliant tunesmith gone too soon

TANDEM: Bodjie Dasig with wife Odette Quesada. EDITH montelibano

Bodjie Dasig lived and breathed music—playing the piano and guitar, writing and recording songs for himself and other artists—and he did it well. He was so good at it that, in the early 1990s, he was juggling two careers: as leader of the band Bodjie’s Law of Gravity and as a pop tunesmith for local singers who needed a hit.

He was very much in the public consciousness at the time, with radio regularly playing some of his works, like “Ale (Nasa Langit Na Ba Ako),” “Sana Dalawa Ang Puso Ko” and “Ayoko Na Sana.”

Then he migrated to the United States with his wife, Odette Quesada, composer of “Till I Met You” (Kuh Ledesma), “Don’t Know What To Say” and “Give Me a Chance” (Ric Segreto), and “Farewell” (Raymond Lauchengco), among others.

Tuesday last week, some 12 hours after Karl Roy passed away in Manila, Bodjie died of kidney cancer at age 48 in Southern California. He is survived by Odette and their son Darian.

A little-known fact about Bodjie was that he paid his dues playing in the band Cicada, which went on to back up Randy Santiago at the height of his fame as a pop singer.  Caloy Balcells of The Dawn and Willie Revillame were members of that band.

Amazing skills

“The first time Bodjie played ‘Ale’ on my guitar, I was amazed,” said composer Christine Bendebel (“Urong Sulong,” “Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang”), who runs House of Tunes Music Publishing which handles Bodjie and Odette’s song catalogue.

Christine and Odette were both students at the UP Conservatory of Music, and friends. Bodjie was her arranger when she won in an international songwriting competition in 1996, Christine pointed out. And she became one of the bridesmaids at his wedding.

In the United States, Bodjie and Odette pursued music as a tandem—performing in concerts and writing songs for albums and stage productions starring Filipinos.

“They produced a full-length album for Nora Aunor,” said Christine. “We were updating each other on song royalties and work till last month.”

Drummer-vocalist Rocky Collado of The Bloomfields, which recorded a version of “Ale,” sent a text message to the Inquirer: “Bodjie had a unique and often quirky touch to his lyrics. His melodies are brilliant. His songs are so good, on first listen you feel like you’ve always known them.”

Willie Nepomuceno, whose three musical-novelty albums (“Menemis Willie,” “Menemis Willie 2,” “Willie Nep for President”) were produced by Bodjie, sent this e-mail: “We fondly called each other ‘friend of mine’ and had great times together. In our studio sessions, there was no difference between work and play … The law of gravity says, ‘What goes up, must come down.’ But Bodjie’s music will defy that. We will continue ‘gravitating’ to his heavenly songs.” Pocholo Concepcion