New Christmas songs to last

Jose Mari Chan

 

Going Home to Christmas

Signature Music Inc.

To start with, of this CD’s 22 tracks, 19 are originals, which says a lot about the music makers and producers, on top of the obvious: that they’re very much into the season.

After 45 years in the biz, Jose Mari Chan is still an enthusiastic tunesmith and Christmas, with its sparkle, romance and upbeat mood, is the perfect match to his creative output.

Catchy, if simple, melodies are meticulously wrapped, if you will, in lavish orchestration— like simple joys, sparked from within, that radiate outward in a big way.

Chan notes that “Going Home to Christmas” comes 22 years after the release of his first holiday album, “Christmas in Our Hearts,” but that the sentiments have hardly changed: Christmas is family.

“There is a song for everyone here,” Chan says. “Joyful carols, songs for families, a nostalgic piece for overseas Filipino workers, prayerful songs, romantic ballads, instrumental music, a song for kids, even two songs in Filipino that evoke the fiesta mood of Pasko.”

Among Chan’s collaborators on this album are stage director Freddie Santos (who wrote the very visual lyrics to “Let Love Be the Gift”), Trina Belamide, Joel Trinidad, Pinky Valdes, Fr. Johnny Go, S.J., Jimmy Santiago, Loren Steele, and Ogie Alcasid.

Talk about family: Chan performs one of the best tracks, “Christmas Moments,” with his kids Michael Philip, Jose Antonio, Liza and Franco. He sings with granddaughter Ramona Isabel on “Song of the Firefly.” And his niece, theater actress Teenee Chan, covered “The Christmas Story,” aptly dated with the help of an old-fashioned chorus and an extro that recalls old movies.

Finest arrangers

 

Chan also worked with Moy Ortiz and The CompanY, Shiela Valderrama, Cris Villongco, Hanna Flores (daughter of musical director Homer Flores), Noelle Cassandra, Psalmo 47, Hail Mary The Queen Children’s Choir, Trina Belamide, Ayie Oppus-Remonte, Lindie Achacoso, Kitchie Molina, Deo Fortunato Cruz, Eugene Cailao, Ateneo Glee Club, Cristina de Leon and Jerome Ventinilla.

Some of the country’s finest musical arrangers were involved: Gerard Salonga, Louie Ocampo, Jun Latonio, Homer Flores, Rudy Lozano, Marvin Querido, Noel Mendez, Ferdie Borja, Robert Delgado, Antonio Go, Kahlil Refuerzo, and Jude and Theresa Roldan. Their contributions are truly noteworthy.

Yaron Gershovsky—musical director and pianist/keyboardist of the world-renowned vocal group The Manhattan Transfer (which recorded Chan’s songs in an earlier CD)—arranged, conducted and played the piano on the two instrumental tracks— “Christmas Air” and “December 25”—and produced both for his own Dorron Music. These two are worthy themes to holiday movies that have yet to be made, much like “Ring In the New” whose intro recalls Chan’s landmark TV jingle, “Big Beautiful Country” in the 1980s.

A few more intros and extros revisit familiar aural territory— some Bacharach here, a little “Midnight Cowboy” there—but quickly revert to Chan Christmas mode. For a little more nostalgia: Chan had never before recorded in Filipino. “Mamang Sorbetero” (whose music he wrote) was recorded by Celeste Legaspi; “Hahanapin Ko” (both music and lyrics his), by Anthony Castelo.

Well, he’s done it for “Going Home,” creditably tackling Jimmy Santiago’s very Filipino lyrics for “Pagdating ng Pasko.”

After a full week of playing “Going Home to Christmas” on the car stereo, we can say we’ve found some new holiday ditties where we thought there was no more space.

The messages are as timeless as the melodies are sweetly familiar, like the season itself. Our favorite consists of  three lines off the lyrics by Fr. Johnny Go  for “Come Let Us Adore Him,” adapted from “Cavalleria Rusticana,” an Italian opera:

“Don’t look too far

For where you are

There shines His star.”  Emmie G. Velarde

Greyson Chance

 

“Truth Be Told Part 1”

Geffen/MCA Music

That Greyson Chance is a young musician brimming with talent is a well-known fact by now. What he’s been doing with this precious gift these past few months is cause for celebration. “Truth Be Told Part 1”—his followup to 2011’s “Hold On ’til the Night”—is a five-track EP that’s a preview of his attempts to harness his songwriting skills.

The songs, which Greyson himself described on Twitter and in interviews with  Philippine media as “stripped down and organic,” are exactly that—bare bones in structure and arrangement, and interconnected in content.

Almost all five tracks are backed only by acoustic guitars, with minimal percussion and Wurlitzer keyboards.

The subject is teenage love, and Greyson, who cowrote everything with a team of composers, tackles it in a direct conversational manner with his object of desire—but with admirable intelligence and a keen grasp of the songwriting craft.

Mood and ambience pervade the first track, “Sunshine & City Lights,” which depicts a couple enjoying a joyride and the guy never wanting to let go. Noticeable is Greyson’s penchant to let his vocals glide into a sweet falsetto, which he keeps doing throughout the album.

The melodies on each song are very engaging, especially on “You Might Be the One,” where the tempo of the key verses matches the nature of the lyrics (“When the lightning strikes/And the rain comes down/I’ll be all right/I’ll dance in your storm…”)

Though Greyson’s romantic sentiments are not  unique, passages on “California Sky” grab one’s attention for their visual and aural elements: “From the first time I saw you at that coffee shop in Melrose/They were playing ‘Hey Jude’ and we both sang along…”

At age 15, Greyson has what it takes to mature into a singer-songwriter of the first order. Pocholo Concepcion