There are few words that can adequately describe the ethos of Leslie Damaso’s new album SIRENA other than alchemic. Featuring kundiman songs (traditional Filipino love and freedom songs) sung in Damaso’s signature operatic, accompanied by original compositions by the Madison-based band Mr. Chair, and featuring performances from Jon Irabagon, Janice Lee and José Guzmán, SIRENA has been years in the making, made possible only by various creative forces that came together at just the right time to produce this multimedia performance.
Blending elements of Tagalog and Ilocano folk, original artwork and folklore, jazz, and classical music, SIRENA is an ambitious, breathtaking amalgamation of tradition and innovation, pushing the boundaries of where we can take homeland art when it becomes part of the diaspora.
Woven within songs like, “Sa Kabukiran” “Dahil Sa Iyo,” and the group’s breakout song, “Bayan Ko,” Damaso narrates the story of Sirena, a mermaid who falls in love with the sun. The power of their romance forms the Philippine nation, commemorated by an eight-rayed sun on its flag that symbolizes the Filipino people’s tireless resistance against colonization. The story is told by a grandmother to her grandchild, who is learning, for the first time, about the power of hurt and healing.
In terms of curating which kundiman songs went into the work, Damaso says that she led with her heart. “It was just melodies that I really loved,” she said. “I feel like there’s a little magic in how this all came together. Because the way the meaning of the songs and the way they’re distributed goes so well with this story.”
Damaso and Mr. Chair have performed SIRENA across the country, from the Bay Area to Chicago, and the album itself pays homage to these live performances. “There’s something that happens when you record it,” pianist Jason Kutz said. “Not only do you actually learn the pieces, but you really have to think about what you want down. It solidifies it in time in a certain way.”
The fact that the songs have evolved so greatly over the years—and continue to evolve—stands testament to the magic that Damaso says is integral to music-making. “Especially when you gather the right people together, there’s the special alchemy that invites the next thing,” she said. The intermezzos in the album accompanying the story were arranged by bassist Ben Ferris, while percussionist Mike Koszewski arranfed bookend pieces featuring Damaso on the kulintang (indigenous Filipino gongs), which she has recently learned how to play.
Damaso and Kutz first began collaborating in 2016 in Madison. At the time, kundiman songs were new to both of them.
“Nobody was singing them anywhere in the state, if not more than that,” Kutz explained. The two originally performed the songs with piano reductions, but Damaso also knew that there was potential to incorporate the harana, or guitar-based courtships common in the Philippines.
“It was pretty obvious that there was room for expansion,” Kutz continued. “At the same time, we started Mr. Chair, [and I thought we] could arrange these songs.” This led to first arrangements which featured drums, guitar, and bass.
Despite the band’s unfamiliarity with Philippine languages and dialects and the kundiman genre, bassist Ben Ferris notes that the melodies themselves have many elements found in Western music, which is a direct result of Spanish and American colonization of the Philippines.
“One of the first things both Jason and I do when we’re arranging or looking into pieces is we figure out what the harmonic chord changes are and make it more like a lead sheet or a chord chart,” he explained. “So having that deep knowledge of what’s actually going on here, of how these chords relate [is helpful].”
“The songs are so interesting because they’re so familiar,” Kutz further elaborated. “The harmonic content is in modern pop music. It’s in Spanish songs, Italian songs. But then there’s this beautiful language that’s on top of it. And that’s what makes this really awesome intersection of things that we know and then a language that we don’t often hear spoken or sung.”
Ferris adds that Damaso’s poem was an important force in composing the musical elements: “I gave each character themes. And then those themes develop and change and interact with each other differently throughout the story,” he said.
Even though listeners might have mixed feelings about how SIRENA pushes traditional Filipino music in new directions, Damaso says she’s ready for it: “What I really love about this project is that yes, there’s the original tunes, but then we’re playing with it in order to call attention to it in this innovative way to preserve what’s already there,” she said.
And, more importantly, Damaso and the band are proud that a project of this caliber and imagination is coming out of the Midwest. “When my teacher heard [“Bayan Ko”] for the first time, she was like, ‘You’re doing something that feels like it’s from the coasts,’ and I said, ‘Well, there’s stuff coming from here too,’” Damaso recalled.
“Doing this project, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of Filipino American players as well, and so part of my next agenda is to somehow highlight that [artistry] in the Midwest.”
The album will be digitally released on June 30, with a double vinyl release forthcoming.
Damaso and Mr. Chair will perform at Olbrich After Hours on July 9 and at Fete de Marquette’s Lagniappe Stage on July 13.
