By ELIZABETH LOLARGA
THE jazz circle concedes that Jacqui Magno possesses a versatile vocal range that enables her to move breezily from Alto to Soprano 2. At her solo concert “Sparkling Diamond,” she showed how this strength could be applied to an eclectic repertoire that gladdened the pre-war, Baby Boomer, Gen X, Y and Z members of the audience.
In a shimmering cobalt blue outfit with an oval buckle sewn with mock diamonds, Magno entered from the back of the Teatrino Greenhills, walked towards the stage while half-singing, half-reciting the introductory verse to “All the Things You Are.”
That verse is overlooked by others who do covers of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein song. It somehow reflected Magno’s view of life at 60 that she described as not yet hounded by thoughts of mortality: “I just try to be here now. That doesn’t stop me from making my dreams come true.”
The concert was a gift to herself. She has appeared in solo gigs at clubs and private parties but not in an event showcasing her voice and entertainment chops.
She said, “It was serendipity. Everything came into being at the right time and place. It’s a dream come true for me. I’ve long wanted to sing with a big jazz band. We’ve been planning for sometime for this to come to fruition. When the opportunity came, my manager Anna Ylagan grabbed it without hesitation.”
The volume of the nine-piece AMP Orchestra sometimes overpowered the singer. Magno averred, “I didn’t feel that at all, though in the Adele number, ‘Someone Like You,’ the arrangement was as such. I’ve had worse experiences with just a four-to five- piece band–I couldn’t hear myself at all in the monitor throughout the show, not just in one number but the entire show. That was really frustrating!”
The amplified sound served Chad Borja well in the hipper version of the 1930s hit “Moonlight Serenade” and the Tower of Power anthem for rockers, “I’ll Still Be Digging on James Brown.”
Magno said Borja had gone through a lot (he survived thyroid cancer). She said he’s returning to the music scene “with lots of gusto.” She struck easy rapport with him in their duet, “Late at Night.”
Her other guest, Richard Merk, poked fun at his sexagenarian friend. He called her “sira ulo, a cowboy since we were together at Birds of the Same Feather.” Birds was a famous jazz bar in the ’70s. He quipped that Magno kept fit through a regimen of “kick boxing, running and Facebooking.”
Her comic side was evident in “Orange Colored Sky” from the 1950s. Her familiarity with hits from her parents’ time arose from her exposure to these in her childhood.
She said, “I got introduced to jazz by my mother playing the piano from her song book selections of Gershwin, Cole Porter when I was eight or nine. Mom was just a music lover. She took piano lessons and liked jazz. Dad, a military man, was the one with the singing talent. On Sundays, they’d ask us to sing, taking turns. Being the youngest, I was eventually left to do all the singing when my siblings went off to marry. Kaya siguro ako nahasa.”
She sang throughout her elementary years all the way to college. A Glee Club member, she was often chosen as lead singer.
She gave new life to “Twisted,” a gem of a song from the ’50s and now rarely heard, “God Bless the Child” and “Capture the Changes.” The last, a Boy Katindig composition, won for Magno two Cecil Awards in 1984 for “Best Female Performer” and “Best Jazz Performance.”
Her encore “Bridges” is significant. She said, “It’s my all-time favorite when I first heard it sung by Flora Purim in the ’70s. I sang it first at Birds of the Same Feather. The lyrics and melody struck a positive note in my heart and soul. Up to this day, I find the song so apropos.”
She stressed how she felt blessed to be 60. She chose the indigent elderly patients of Quirino Memorial Hospital as beneficiaries, explaining, “I thought for a change to also give attention to the elderly since most (fund-raisers) focus on the youth. I’ve seen patients living in cramped conditions in the wards. Being a senior citizen, I realized that the elderly need respect and care, too.”
When the time comes to quit the scene, she will take up music therapy “to use my talent to help heal. I still hope that in whatever way, wherever it may lead me, my singing will contribute to one’s well-being.”
(Ms. Magno will be seen again with The Circus Band and The New Minstrels at “The Greatest Hits Reunion” on Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. at the PICC Plenary Hall .)