BISAYA
ENGLISH: PROSE AND POEMS EVERY DAY
CHEA
CASTILLO: Bossa nova, literally
By
JC Nigado
CHEA’S
cool singing voice sounds fresh and free, it’s supposedly not
made
for musicals, some say, as if voices were “made.” But hers is a gift that
should
be nurtured in casual concerts and records. I mean “casual,”
as
in easy, simply because it’s where Chea shines best, and connects most.
Hers is the new for old voice, like
the fluid alto of Karen and KZ,
Carly
and Cher--relaxed and pleasing to the ear, the singing almost effortless. And
what stories it tells!
Chea is a character addition to the
roster of talents in the Philippines Stagers Foundation. She bears watching,
despite the fact, or especially because some people think her performance in
“Katips: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero” leaves much to be desired. I dare say, and
better look again, folks, she’s not the only one whose acting is wanting, as
Claire would holler. There are many others, too.
But off Katips, Chea’s singing is a
sight and sound to behold.
Her
sing song is her history--calm, natural, and the music is organic,
the
rhythm rising and falling to the beat. You watch her sing, looking
plain
and simple, artless even, but underneath that voice and simplicity is a storied
life whose characters are hewed out from classics, Grace Poe, the scripted
Quasimodo of showbiz and politics would
cringe in shame.
Perhaps, Victor Hugo would relate
her to the Good Hunchback of Notre Dame and Cosette in Les Miserables, in the
Visayan and Ilocano
setting,
who cares? As long as Chea sings her joys and woes, her dreams and failures, in
the style she does best, the world will be better for it.
Songs are everyone’s soundtrack, and
how you hear them defines
who
and what you are. Indeed, those who sing them are bound to be and do more.
Cheer
on, Chea!
After exercise,
Thursday, 18 August 2016
Tagurabong City,
Philippines
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