Past Events

Jeepney Jazz Talks
Bakit Hindi Ka Dumarating?
Music & Stage During the Japanese Occupation
with Dr. Ricardo Trota Jose
April 27, 2024 (Saturday)
2:00 – 4:00 PM

Jeepney Jazz returns with a look into the swing era and its influences. Renowned World War II historian, Dr. Ricardo Trota Jose explores the entertainment scene during the war with a special focus on jazz.

During the Japanese occupation, music and theater in Manila were heavily censored, to fit Japan’s propaganda lines. American themes of individual freedoms, popular culture and Western traditions were downplayed in favor of Japan and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Movies were limited, resulting in a golden age for local theatrical performances and musical improvisation. This provided an outlet for Filipino creativity which appealed to the audiences, and even provided a means to resist the Japanese. The return of the Americans and the end of the war largely put an end to this brief period of improvisation.

Jeepney Jazz Session 1 | Brass Rosette
June 8, 2024 (Saturday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM
Ayala Museum

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Ready to get back into the groove?

The Jeepney Jazz Sessions return with the dynamic band of Brass Rosette, fronted by multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and band leader Nicole Tejedor-Reluya, trombonist and vocalist Vanessa Celestial, and guitarist John Reluya.

Continue your musical journey as Jeepney Jazz tours the 1920s until the 1950s. Listen to how jazz blossomed in pre-war Philippines to how it flourished after World War II. Groove to an evening of swing, Dixieland, and bebop played with Filipino arrangements and a distinct Pinoy flair.

Welcome back to Jeepney Jazz!

Jeepney Jazz Session 2 | Skarlet Brown
June 29, 2024 (Saturday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM
Ayala Museum

If vintage music could be colorized, let Skarlet Brown paint them in jazz neon. This June 29, 2024, Saturday, 8-10 PM at Ayala Museum, Skarlet’s upcoming Jeepney Jazz Session features tunes from the vintage American songbook, with lyrics translated into Filipino. The repertoire includes traditional Philippine songs arranged for the sound of now.

Skarlet is joined on the stage by internationally acclaimed saxophone wizard Tots Tolentino. Tolentino is most famous for joining the Asian Jazz All-Stars Power Quartet upon the invitation of Japanese trumpet guru Terumasa Hino, and sharing the spotlight with top jazzmen from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand.

Filipinas Heritage Library in partnership with Purefoods Deli presents Jeepney Jazz to bring to the front neglected histories of Filipino creativity and musicality. This music education program pairing talks with concerts highlights how Filipino composers and performers transform foreign influences and propel their leap into global routes. Jazz playing since 1920s, for instance, started the trend of Filipinos doing overseas work in bands and clubs across Asia.

For the traditional Philippine repertoire, Skarlet journeys through the kundiman and zarzuela music scenes of the 1920s-1950s era. But the route she takes goes back-to-the-future, infusing the old, familiar pieces with the vigor of today’s jazz soundscapes.

Singing the American songbook in Filipino is part of the tradition known as “salin-awit.” Showcasing the Philippine knack for hybridity, this translation practice started in early Philippine radio, before the Second World War.

Many of the songs Skarlet sings are translations by the poet Pete Lacaba. The esteemed lineage of “salin-awit” continues well into the present through writers like Lacaba, the National Artist for Theater and Literature Rolando Tinio, and the late playwright and children’s book author Rene Villanueva.Multi-awarded as a performer and a jazz songwriter, Skarlet is celebrated in the Philippine jazz world for her rich, earthy vocal power. Among the prizes this full-throated diwata of scat singing has won is the 2019 Aliw Award for Best Jazz Artist.

A little-known fact is that Skarlet is a poet. The gut-level conviction in her performances comes as no surprise given her fine ear for lyrics. Her poem “Colors Danced” recently won a prize at the 2024 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards. The Philippine Graphic Reader gave the same award in fiction to showbiz celebrity turned writer Rita Avila.

Found on the sixth floor of Ayala Museum, Filipinas Heritage Library is managed by Ayala Foundation under its Arts and Culture Division. The library stokes interest in all things Filipino, gathered up in print, audio, and visual materials. Along with its core collection on World War II, it gives visitors physical access to popular song, traditional and art music, and jazz.

Jeepney Jazz Session 3 | Dixie Sheikhs
July 13, 2024 (Saturday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM
Ayala Museum

Dixie Sheikhs brings Jeepney Jazz to a rollicking finish 

Dixie Sheikhs caps this season’s Jeepney Jazz Sessions with a playful mash-up this July 13, 2024, Saturday, 8-10 PM at Ayala Museum. Presented by Filipinas Heritage Library in partnership with Purefoods Deli, Jeepney Jazz is a series of concerts probing the idea of a uniquely Filipino jazz sound.

The upcoming Dixie Sheikhs repertoire includes Dixieland classics in its first set. Famous tunes of early jazz in America set the scene for the experiments in the second set, merging the old sound with contemporary Filipino songs presented in the musical style of the 1920s and 1930s.

Ronald Tomas, arranger and Dixie Sheikhs band leader, invites audiences to hear the parallels between the airwaves of pre-war Philippines and today’s Pinoy popular songs. The music experiment is aimed to please longtime jazz aficionados while giving first-time listeners an accessible experience of the genre.

Jeepney Jazz focuses on a musical form known for cerebral charm to celebrate Filipino creativity. This music education program, pairing history talks with concerts, showcases how Filipino music artists transform foreign influences and leap into global routes. Filipino jazzmen in 1920s, for instance, started the trend of working overseas in bands and clubs across Asia.

Found on Ayala Museum’s sixth floor, Filipinas Heritage Library is managed by Ayala Foundation under its Arts and Culture Division. This digital research hub stokes interest in all things Filipino, gathered up in print, audio, and visual materials. Along with its core collection on World War II, the library gives visitors physical access to popular, traditional, and art music.

Jazz in the Philippines took root through band music and dance halls. As early as the 1910s, Filipinos were already listening to ragtime and the Latin music genres that Jelly Roll Morton claimed as an integral part of the jazz sound. It seems likely that Filipinos found in early jazz a tuneful way to transition from Spanish to American cultural forms.

The cultural historian Peter Keppy recalls that the Philippine Constabulary Band, beyond its rise to world fame in the 1904, entertained Filipinos with dance music, Dixieland jazz, and Latin dance tunes. Eventually, high-society venues also popularized jazz in the country—venues such as the Mabromatis’s Cabaret, famous in Cebu in 1915, The Lerma established by an American in 1918, and the Santa Ana Cabaret in the 1920s.

Is the mash-up between new Pinoy pop and the old sound of American-colonial Philippines destined for a musical win? Find out with Dixie Sheikhs in the upcoming Jeepney Jazz Session. To book tickets, visit bit.ly/fhl-jeepneyjazz-dixie.

Jeepney Jazz Talks
May Riffs Na, May Grooves Pa: Calling Up Jazz from Pinoy Pop
with Professor Ronald Tomas
September 7, 2024 (Saturday)
2:00 – 4:00 PM

Jeepney Jazz Session
BRASS PAS PAS PAS PAS
November 9, 2024 (Saturday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM

Jeepney Jazz Session
BRASS MUNKEYS
November 29, 2024 (Friday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM

Jeepney Jazz Session
PROJECT YAZZ
December 7, 2024 (Saturday)
8:00 – 10:00 PM