Ardie Sarao’s Guitar, Scarred but not broken
Levy Abad -Aug
4, 2016 (4:30pm to 10:00)
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| Courtesy of Ardie's FB page |
I really want to write about the history of Pinoy music
in Winnipeg from 1974 to 2016. I thought that the best way to do this is to
interview Ardie Sarao who was gracious enough to give me an overview. When I
went to his place, I met another musician named Ed Esteban, whom I met at
Portage Place playing the piano. Unfortunately, after Ed played Elton John’s Skyline
Pigeon and Ardie singing with his husky tenor, he has to leave with his church
buddy Kenneth Ferguson to play for a 6 p.m. Sunday service.
Ardie shared that as far as he can remember, he used
to hang out with Mikrobyo Band in the early 80s. Mikrobyo band was composed of
the following: Butch Miraflor who plays awesome lead guitar, Teofilo “Teo”
Mance- acoustic (briefly then went solo), Tony Igonia – Bass and Celso Bueno –Vocals.
Sometime in 1977, he became a member of Friends Folk Duo that later on became Sarao
Brothers Folk Duo. In 1981 to 1983,
Ardie became a member of the Juan Tamad Band. From 1984 to 1986, he was part of
the Laguna Sunrise Band and then in 1987, Off Limits Band. Ardie decided to go
solo afterwards and ventured outside the Filipino community.
Friends Folk
Duo, 1977-78 The members of this duo were Francisco “Boy” Sarao and Arman
Reyes. Eventually this group will evolve and will become the Sarao Brothers
Folk Duo of Boy Sarao and Ardie Sarao. Ardie
said that the repertoire of the Friends Folk Duo includes CSNY,
Travelling Wilburys, James Taylor, Rolling Stones, Beatles and any Folk Rock of
the 60s and the 70s era. The Friends Folk Duo performed at barbecue parties,
small gatherings and socials. Back in
the days, the population of Filipinos in Winnipeg was just around 35 thousand.
JUAN TAMAD
Band (1981-83) This period saw the transition from folk and country to a
new genre of music and the new role that Ardie assumed as a lead guitarist. The
members of the Juan Tamad Band, according to him, were the following: Francisco “Boy” Sarao, Napoleon Medina (vocals),
Tony Igonia (bass and band leader), Ardie Sarao (lead guitar and vocals). Juan Tamad Band covered progressive metal
songs of the Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Quite Riot. When asked where they performed, Ardie said
it was at the Balmoral Hotel, weddings and socials and Bueno`s Lounge, a place
owned by Celso Bueno.
LAGUNA
SUNRISE (1984- 86) 1984 marked another change in style from progressive
metal song to pop rock ,latin and jazzy
types .The members of this new group were:
Celso Bueno (vocals) , Tony Igonia (bass), and Francisco “Boy” Sarao (lead vocals) and Ardie
Sarao (lead guitar). Laguna Sunrise
covered songs by In Excess, Los Lobos, Billy Idol, 70s classic ballad and some
Earth Wind and Fire songs. The band also
played at the Bueno’s Lounge and at the basement called Maharlika Hall. Ardie
added that basically Laguna Sunrise is the evolution of Mikrobyo (Interview with Ardie Sarao- September 3, 2016).
OFF LIMITS
Band (1987) The following were the members of Off Limits Band, which was
formed in 1987: Jojo Yso, Ardie Sarao,
Willy Liwanag and Lito Balmes. Ardie
Sarao would leave the group later on. Off Limits played at the Casa Bueno
Lounge (now known as Pampanga Restaurant), every Friday and Saturday. They covered PInoy Rock songs. Joso Yso remembers when they were still a
four-piece band, they took on Glam Rock. Glam Rock is like the music of POISON,
Motley Crue, The Cult, Def Leppard and Cinderella. Jojo explained that Glam Rock is a short term
for Glamorous Rock because of the way the pioneers of these bands dressed up (Source: text messages of Jo Yso -September
2, 2016).
Briefly in 2006, Ardie Sarao performed at a
Valentine Party at Pampanga Restaurant with a new group called FRIENDS (without
Boy Sarao). He played with Mike Lazatin,
who was 2003 ABS-CBN’s Star of a Million semi- finalist, doing vocals, Darius Dandan
on saxophone, James de Nieva (percussion) (September
5, 2016 interview).
From the experiences that Ardie Sarao went through,
starting from his classical training then folk
and country in the early years and later moving on to different schools
of rock as a singer and guitarist, one will not wonder anymore why he managed
to do all the guitar performances that he posted on Youtube. If the persona of
Ardie Sarao intrigues you, I suggest that you view him on
YouTube channel @
www.youtube.com/ardiesarao https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsq14ldp7NrsNSvlx2tfWg and listen to
his covers and own compositions.
Ardie Sarao’s Guitar, Scarred but not broken (part 2)
Levy Abad
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| Courtesy of Ardie's FB page |
Aside from
Ardie Sarao, I would also like to write about Neil Bondoc. When I mentioned the
name of Neil, Ardie became excited and told me that he had a lot of encounters
with Neil as the latter is a senior musician friend in the community. He shared
that Neil Bondoc started out in the city with the folk and country tradition,
but eventually evolved into Rock and Roll etc. He said that he was also
inspired by Neil’s great talent in singing and playing the guitar. He recalls hanging out at the Sherbrook and
Sargent apartment of Neil Bondoc in the past. Neil, Ardie added, is a master of
Eddie Peregrina and Boy Mondragon’s songs to the delight of the Filipino
community.
Ardie became a bit emotional when he shared that he
was not able to attend the last birthday of Neil Bondoc before the latter passed
away. He called Neil instead and they had a nice two-hour talk about life,
music etc., the kind that created ripples in his life .This was months before
Neil passed away. Ardie shared an eerie story that he was playing at Concorde
Hotel and just finished his gig and was already fixing his stuff when he saw
Neil Bondoc enter the bar. He was excited to see his friend. It was then that Jojo
Yso, another musician friend, came up to him and told him about the sad news of
Neil’s death. The news came as a shock to Ardie because he just saw Neil minutes
ago in the bar. Kind of a believe it or not thing. Ardie said that another
musician that was close to Neil is Arman Reyes, who also was deeply shaken by
Neil’s leaving for rock and roll heaven.
We took a break from the sharing of memories and I
sang some of my original compositions such as Heading to Manitoba, Dito sa Winnipeg and Souls Taken Away (a tribute to residential school victims). For his
part, Ardie did some back-up guitars a la Maury Muehleisen, the buddy of Jim
Croce (a folk singer legend who wrote “Time in A Bottle” and who perished in a
plane crash in 1976). We chatted about a possible project like recording a song
together at his basement, doing some gigs for fun and posting it on YouTube.
I asked Ardie about his influences and he gave me a
handful. He mentioned Paco de Lucia, the King of Flamenco, Joe Santana, Jimmy
Page of Led Zeppelin, Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple, Jimi Hedrix, Al Di
Meola, Steve Vai, Van Halen , Yngwie
Mamstein and Mike Hanopol of Juan De la Cruz Band (September 5,2016 interview).
He said that, nowadays, he kind of systhesized all these influences in the way
he does with his music. He showed me
some of his postings on Youtube and I could somehow discern his development and
the time that he devoted in mastering his craft.
Our discussion moved to the topic of guitar.
According to Ardie, guitar for him is like a woman and he even told me that he
misses his old Ovation guitar with its great sound and curvy shape. He laughed
out loud while saying this. “You have to
love your guitar and should always be with it holding it close and always making
music with it to be able to produce great music and memories,” Ardie said.
Furthermore, Ardie revealed that he got the analogy from his basic classical
guitar teacher in the Philippines named Jojie Samaniego who is a contemporary
of Lester Demetillo. I told Ardie that as far as I’m concerned, guitar is an
instrument of peace. It is like a weapon for organizing and rousing and raising
consciousness of folks for social change, explaining that the dominant culture
nowadays promote systemic cooptation and inertia. I told him that my favorites
are Jim Croce, Bob Dylan, W. Guthrie, Jackson Browne, Gary Granada and Heber
Bartolome.
We then talked about musicians who visited Winnipeg,
and to my surprise, he shared his music days with Mike Hanopol of the famous
Juan Dela Cruz Band when Mike had a concert here back in 1997. Ardie said he used to drive for Mike Hanopol
in the city and also session with the Legend.
On the other hand, I shared that when Mike visited Toronto, I met him
there and Mike even stayed at my house in Mississauga. Mike and I talked for
long hours about religion and philosophy.
When asked how long he’s been here in the city,
Ardie replied that he arrived here in 1979 and followed the musicians of the
day like the members of the Mikrobyo, Teo Mance, Celso Bueno , his brother Boy
Sarao and Arman Reyes of Friends Folk
Duo (which became Sarao Btothers later), a certain Vladi (a talented
folksinger back between ‘81 to ‘83, who covers
Don Mclean, James Taylor, Jim Croce and countless greats). He clarified that his older brother, Boy
Sarao, was the one who started him out in singing and performing when he was a
kid. He reminisced his Vancouver days where
he did some gigs and busking and where he met a band called Twin Lovers Guitar
Duo, Choy Vergara and Buddy. Ardie noted that Choy Vergara also stayed here in
the Peg and performed in a lot of places in the 80s. Back in the days, Ardie
used to busk even here in the Winnipeg.
Aside from him and his brother Boy, Ardie has a sister, Luz Sarao
–September, who played at Lounges here in Winnipeg in the mid -80s. He added
that she is known in the folk circuit in Manila as Luchi Sarao.
Ardie said that he has been in the music scene
playing with bands when he eventually decided to play solo. He witnessed artists
being ripped-off like being issued bouncing cheque after a great night of
performance. He became serious at this point and said, “I experienced the hagupit (pain) of a musician’s life. Times when I
don’t earn enough for food, not even money to buy a good set of strings.” As early as ‘81 or ’82, he said that he
already played in public places like in the old Portage Place where most of the
musicians do basking during that time. He continued, “I experienced performing for a burger and fries, do some pass the hat
for some loose change. Oh boy, those were the days, bro” (September 5, 2016 interview).
These
experiences, according to Ardie taught him to be realistic, not set high
expectations and just express his passion of playing music. He asked me what’s the difference between a
busker who played great music and a damn famous musician who plays a four-chord
song with non-sense lyrics in front of a wild crowd? Where is the sense in it? He regretted the
instrumentalist treatment of musicians in the community without considering the
time or life expended in honing the craft.
Ardie was kind of blunt in his honesty that if you are a typical Pinoy,
you may be offended and might not come back for another chat or jam. If you are
intrigued by the persona of Ardie, I would suggest that you visit his postings
on You Tube, just type Ardie Sarao and you will find his heart and soul. After talking with Ardie, I can say that Ardie
is like an old guitar scarred and bruised but still sounds great like my 50-year
old Morris w40.
On December 2013, the band, Traffikk Jamm, was born. Traffikk Jamm is one of the high impact rock bands of the Filipino community. The members of the band are JojoYso (guitar and vocals), Erwin San Juan (lead guitar/vocals), AC Garcia (lead vocals), Willy Liwanag (bass /vocals) and last but not the least, Noel Marana (drums/vocals) (Traffikk Jamm’s FB page). Their music incorporates elements of classic rock and top 40s music. This year, Traffikk Jamm performed at the recently concluded Food-O-Rama at PCCM and at the 2016 Manitoba Filipino Street Festival held at Downtown Winnipeg where about 15,000 attended. They also held a fundraising concert at 49 Euclid Avenue for the Filipino Seniors Group. On October 1 and 2, they are one of the featured performers at the Octoberfest organized by the Winnipeg Filipino Beer Festival. (Traffikk Jamm Band: Winnipeg`s Pride, Levy Abad, Articles and Poems).
Reflecting on the experience of Jojo, I can imagine the time that he spent on playing the guitar and honing his skill. Back in high school, we used to boast of the caloused fingertips due to hours spent playing the guitar. I neglected my studies just to learn After the Gold Rush of Neil Young, I Need You of America and Is it okay If I call you mine by Paul McCrane. I can just imagine how many hours were spent on this through the years excluding the time spent on memorizing songs even the cassette cartridges spent, the cassette player messed up by the forwards and the rewinds just to capture the style of James Taylor, Don McLean, among others. For those who never went through this kind of experience, everything seems easy and perhaps would think that singing a song is a cheap trick. Mind you, Jojo reads notes and knows how to arrange, which for a folksinger like me who only learned to play guitar on the streets, is another level still.
