Boys with voice

Star Magic of ABS-CBN launched Tuesday night (11 March) four newly signed musical talents that include a brother and a sister who won’t be built up as a duo but as solo acts, just like the two others who are not blood kin though one of them is a younger brother of someone already quite famous as an actress.

It’s not unnerving at all for Pinoy showbiz to — wittingly or unwittingly — form dynasties. No people’s tax money gets gobbled up in the process. (And is it not that showbiz celebs are among the country’s highest taxpayers?) 

Esang and James Philippe are the siblings. Esang is the child wonder of music in the Philippines who has played lead in two international musicals in the country and in Singapore: Waltzing Mathilda and Les Miserables. 

Colleague Jeff Fernando recently wrote all the best that could be said about Esang (please see DAILY TRIBUNE Life on 11 March) so we’ll take up here her older brother James Philippe. (De Torres is the siblings’ surname.)

The kuya confided at their launch in a bar a stone’s throw from the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City that he is the shy type and was so glad when Esang started to love singing to family visitors during their childhood because he was really uncomfortable performing in front of people. 

His singing and ability to play the guitar and the piano, however, was hard to ignore. Even in the past, when writers did a feature on Esang’s being a singing child prodigy, they couldn’t help but mention in passing the older brother’s musical skills. The kuya wasn’t into public performances at that time. 

It must have been the siblings’ parents accompanying Esang in interviews with media who would mention their older child’s unpublicized musical prowess. The parents are both professional band vocalists and instrumentalists. Mom and dad Mary Joyce Castillejo and Telesforo de Torres aren’t only likeable people, but have a fine sense of humor, too. They gave their older child a French-y name James Philippe and the second one a very Pinoy monicker Esang, short for Telesa Marie. (It’s almost like a Greek name, is it not?) 

At the media launch, James Philippe in person becomes his foreign-sounding name with his naturally thick and deep black eyebrows on a squarish, smooth, gentle face. He speaks gently, too, but with clear enunciation in Filipino. Well, he’s kinda diminutive, like his sister, both belying their respective musical prowess. 

James Philippe is not only into singing but also composing songs, not only for solo singing but also for choral renditions. He took up conducting and composing at the Conservatory of Music of the University of Sto. Tomas. He holds an entire Bachelor of Music degree, not just a certificate for short courses in music-making. 

But he likes pop music, so don’t get intimidated. At the media launch, one of the songs Esang did was Mister Maginoo, a ditty composed by the kuya who joined the accompanying band as a guitarist. James Philippe sat on a high stool in front, a meter away from Esang. He did not strum stolid, as many Pinoy instrumentalists disgustingly do, but gently swayed his head and sang some of the lines off-mike to himself. After all, he wrote the song’s lyrics himself about a girl infatuated with some reticent guy. James Philippe smiles a lot — unlike the mostly serious Esang. 

“Nagwawalis ako sa harap ng bahay namin nung nag-flash sa isip ko yung idea ng kanta (I was sweeping the front of the house when the idea for this son flashed in my mind),” the kuya sweetly revealed. 

Talent in the blood

No one seems to have been bothered that the siblings are being presented to the media alongside two tall boys with movie star looks, to boot: Diego Gutierrez and Jarlo Base. Gutierrez (as in Janine, the lead actress daughter of friendly ex-couple Ramon Christopher Gutierrez and Lotlot de Leon). 

In case you’re too young to know, Ramon Christopher’s father is the towering ex-matinee idol Eddie Gutierrez and his mother is the iconic singer Pilita Corrales. Ramon Christopher is a half-brother of Annabelle Rama’s children with Eddie, among whom are actress-beauty queen Ruffa Gutierrez and top ABS-CBN actor Richard Gutierrez. Durable drama actor Tonton Gutierrez is also their half-brother whose mother is the ever-remarkable drama actress Liza Lorena (a former beauty queen, too) who seems to have retired from the acting profession. 

Diego is into R&B as a singer-songwriter. And so is Jarlo Base, though he writes in Tagalog and plays the piano and guitar. Diego writes in English. The De Torres siblings compose, too, and seemingly mostly in Tagalog. 

Base sang one of his compositions, “Tabi Gabi-gabi.” It’s bruited to have been once recommended to fans by BINI member Colet. The guy has an occasional growl in his singing, which he probably has to develop some more. 

Keeping the magic

Esang was understandably the most confident and engaging singer that night. All four though seem to have opted for minimalist body movement perhaps because the launch venue was small and the event was meant mainly for media and kin of the four very promising talents whose respective career needs intense boosting — and a lot of honing for the three males. Those machos are too laidback to be wildly adulated. 

Diego’s dad was in the audience. Sister Janine introduced Diego through a video clip. 

Esang and Base have recorded with other companies before, but their outputs seem to have not been grandly promoted. Esang seemed to have slowed down for her high school and college education. The last time we caught her on stage was some three years ago yet as a main performer in KDR Music House’s concert-movie Wish Date. Esang needs grandiose concerts and musicals to give her grand exposures.

Signing up the four very promising performers bode well for ABS-CBN. The media and entertainment company may be giving up its land properties, such as half of the ground of its Quezon City compound, with the buildings on it slated to be demolished. The Lopezes have sold half of the compound to the Zobel-Ayalas. 

The Lopezes, though, as well as their media and entertainment executives, are not giving up their brilliance in seeding and raising human stars that can glow day and night. Never mind that ABS-CBN has to collaborate more and more with GMA 7. The Lopezes and their executives and stars have to keep sharing with the Filipinos the prowess and the wisdom they have mastered over the years. They have acquired immortality, we believe.