See you on July 3 at My Brother's Mustache!

Hey friends, this should be a great concert and get-together! I received a forwarded and roundabout email through another friend, Reuters photographer in Beijing, Claro Cortes, from my other e-group, Banggaan (featured in these pages in the previous post), which counts among its members the great Filipino singer, composer and artist Heber Bartolome, Susan's friend and colleague in Filipino music (and who will perform in the concert, though his name was missing in the list above). So I took some liberties with the little poster which came with the letter, and came up with the one above. And here, too, is the letter from Susan's friend, Malu Maniquis:

Hello Everyone—

You may or may not know of or heard Ms. Susan Fernandez sing but to me she's one of the rarest. She is the voice that made popular the womens' rights song "BABAE KA!". She's not only a friend to me and to many others but she has always been lending her time in fund-raising shows for fellow artists in need of financial help for medical treatment. My documentary films would not have that much impact if not delivered by her clear, soothing voice full of conviction.

It took her sometime to tell me that she has been diagnosed with cancer of the ovary, and thank God it is still in stage 1.

Attending this show will show your respect for one of the jewels of Philippine Arts and Culture though her talent has remained unrecognized by still so many people, especially the present generation. So we are reviving her album in CD format and will be part of the fund-raising as well.

See you July 3, 6-9:30 pm, Brother's Mustache...

Thank you and God Bless!

Malu Maniquis

Susan by Egai Fernandez


















Well, also our love, when we show up there. I had to follow the cropping of the painting for the poster above, from the one sent by the Friends of Susan, understandably to have a bigger image of Susan's lovely face as rendered by National Artist Ben Cabrera (Bencab). The painting should be one of a series of portraits by Bencab of Filipino artists, musicians, writers. Ben's full painting is shown further down below. (Incidentally, Bencab lent me a digital file of his The Huntress, the frontispiece for the Independence Day Issue of our other site, the blog-magazine Poet's Picturebook, link at the sidebar). And here too is another fantastic painting of Susan in her singing mode, probably emoting a kundiman passage, by yet another great painter, Egai Fernandez (directly above). Both images are courtesy of Susan's son, Ino, from his Multiply site.

Ah, our dear Susan, who is and has been so much part of our lives (some of such lives spent sub-rosa and underground in the cause-oriented movement), when we were (and still are) all in love with her. Who will forget such a crystal and dulcet voice, either in lament, love, or protest? As her friends describe her and her singing, "Si Susan Fernandez ang 'Nightingale' ng cause-oriented groups dahil sa matining ngunit buo niyang boses sa pag-awit na napakagandang pakinggan, tunay na walang kaparis at walang kupas sa kabila ng nagdaang panahon. Buong puso niyang ibinahagi sa marami ang kanyang talento at oras upang maisulong ang mga mabuting adhikain para sa lipunan at sambayanan."









Full Portrait of Susan by Bencab

















But we know her too as the irrepressible friend, easy-to-make-laugh, with an intelligent funny bone (and "laughable," like anyone's Funny Valentine), writer of newspaper columns, college professor at Ateneo, conductor of FGDs in our advertising world, and friend (and inspiration) to writers, who never refused our requests for her songs in many of our literary gatherings such the Congresses of the Writers Union of the Philippine, or Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (Umpil). Or, whom we love simply to be with in a small gathering of friends such as one recent birthday of long-time friend Jess Sison at their warm home-and-superb-kitchen, where we were spoiled and feted by his lovely wife Lina with an array of her cuisine. Another friend, poet Fidel Rillo, lost his verbal skills in complimenting the food and the good wine. Lina's cooking, the wine, friends coming and going to and from the feast to some unnamed destination (poet Jess Santiago was there but he missed the picture-taking), the long and lingering conversation, and Susan's presence, made the night so heady it seemed forever.

At Jess Sison's birthday: from left, Jess & Lina Sison, Susan, msyelf, and Fidel Rillo

Or, in the recent Salinawit Concert at Conspiracy, where she was our special guest singer, while the "main" performers were "trying-hard" writer-singer-translators Charlson Ong, myself, and Michael Coroza (who's not trying hard), and of course, the Salinawit initiator and culprit himself, the poet, screen writer and journalist Jose "Pete" F. Lacaba. In that Conspiracy night Susan sang "Sa Tanging Alaala Mo," my own salinawit of "The Very Thought of You." And of course, in the more recent past, from Cuba Libre Cafe to Kasalo Restaurant, from Blind Tiger to Conspiracy, we—meaning the not-so-young writers, including now from various trades, writer-traveller-NGO man Ed Santoalla, fellow advertising man Romy Bohol, and journalist-PR man Joey Salgado—and, certainly, old friends like Krip Yuson, Jimmy Abad, Rio Alma, became her camp followers in her solo gigs, or the impromptu Friday night at Silungan Cafe in the basement of Balai Kalinaw at UP, where we would sing with Gougou de Jesus, Celina Cristobal, Reuel Aguila, Arnold Azurin (two Elvis Presley songs), and her gigs or guestings with Cookie Chua or Noel Cabangon at 70s Bistro or Conspiracy, and more regularly later with Lester and Becky Demetillo at My Brother's Mustache. And the nights were all heady and long.

Or yet again, in coming together to comfort a friend, as we did and travelled all the way to Obando, Bulacan to be with Jess Santiago in his bereavement from his mother. It was time too for reminiscing, when the world was young and passionate, and Susan would travel all the way by bus from Manila for the endless meetings at Jess's house. And sure, many times have the young swains of the Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT), counting Reuel Aguila, (the late) Romulo Sandoval, Fidel Rillo, (the late) Mike Bigornia, Teo Antonio, Vet Vitug, Ompong Desuasido, Danny Consumido, and myself (then a "neophyte" in the poetry group) trooped to Obando, to talk poetry and politics, get drunk, sing, and last but not least, listen to, be around, Susan Fernandez.





Susan in one Silungan night caught by a shaky camera, singing maybe "So Many Stars," one of her Sergio Mendez favorites







But Susan is as hardy as she is lovely. She has toured extensively in alternative music concerts, all over the Philippines as well as in Europe and the Americas, many times with Jess Santiago, Grupong Pendong, and many others. I first worked with her, together with another beautiful friend, Hope Abella, on an album for children and children's rights, as writer of the liner notes and translator of some of the songs, for still another foreign concert. Jess's and Pendong's tours in Europe were also aided by my translations of the lyrics for the European audiences. The friendships continued and the paths crossed and forked, but we had much in common—music, of course, and poetry, beer, good food, and later wine, and Susan Fernandez.

The first time I saw her (which she probably does not remember), was when she recorded, together with another "nightingale," the beautiful honey-voiced Yoni Randrup, and another singer whose name I now regrettably forget, "Babae Ka," Ani Montano's winning entry to that year's Metropop. They recorded late at night in the studio of the public affairs office of NFA, where another long-time friend, Danny Consumido, and I worked. The late Dindo Odra and Feddie Espiritu joined Danny and I in gawking at the bewitching threesome harmonizing and soloing alternately, "Babae ka..."

Since then our common friendships have gone through many of life's flows and ebbs, crests and troughs, arrivals and departures, wear and tear. Yes, she will need all our prayers. But she will prevail and sing for us.