Spotify and Filipino Jazz

When Spotify, the peer-to-peer based music streaming service, finally launched in the Philippines, I was relieved to find another platform for music discovery, not just for foreign artists, but also for local acts. Indeed, Spotify’s library for ‘Original Pilipino Music’ (OPM) is as extensive as one could find browsing through a record store, listing entire catalogues of many popular artists, stretching back to old disco hits of the 70s to newer hard rock and indie hits of the once again flourishing music industry.

While searching for new artists to discover, I came across this blog post from 2011 detailing Spotify’s OPM collection. The author noted the existence of a jazz rendition of “Himig Natin” by famed saxophonist Tots Tolentino, which was where I started to wonder about Filipino jazz, a relatively hard find out on the streets, and whether it was any more accessible through Spotify’s platform.

My first experience with Filipino jazz started with my appreciation of jazz music itself; browsing for artists to expand my catalogue, I came across a fairly well-known Filipino jazz pianist named Bobby Enriquez, who rose to fame in the United States around the 80s and early 90s for his energetic, almost piano bashing, style of play. Back then, I managed to acquire his entire catalogue by any means, downloading CD and vinyl rips from file-sharing sites linked by shady jazz blogs. My later search for vinyl records of his works came up nil. I had access to six of his albums, including a live album recorded in Tokyo. Checking his artist page on Spotify, I was surprised to find two albums which I had already listened to (including his live album) plus a third which had eluded my search years back.

Moving on to other jazz artists, the aforementioned Tots Tolentino is also fairly represented on the platform, with a single solo album as well as a live album with the “Asian Jazz All-Stars:” Eugene Pao, Hong Chantur Techatana-nan, and Jeremy Monteiro. Boy Katindig, another jazz pianist, has one album available to stream.

There were two more artists which I searched for, having seen both of them perform live in Forte Coffeehouse back when it was still located along Maginhawa Street. The Ronald Tomas Nonet, a nine-piece jazz band whose compositions incorporate the syncopation, tone, and various other elements of indigenous music, has their album Travels (which I also own) on their catalogue. I was a little disappointed in that Extrapolation, a younger jazz-funk band, didn’t have their EP on the service; this, however, is excusable since they’re currently signed onto a small independent label, I believe.

I later started to extend my search to popular bands known for incorporating jazz elements into their compositions. SinoSikat?, whose music straddles the line between jazz and soul while incorporating elements of other genres, is almost barren on Spotify, with their artist page containing a single track from an acoustic compilation album. The world music outfit HUMANFOLK, a band tagged with ‘Filipino Jazz’ on last.fm, has their sole album online.

I’ve prepared a public playlist of some of the albums mentioned here, Which I’ll also update as I come across other artists and albums on the platform.