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CELEBRITY GALLERY - JOSE MARY CHAN
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Jose
Mari Chan was born and raised in Iloilo City. While
still in elementary school, he worked as a radio deejay
on weekends. He had a natural talent for music which
was further honed during his high school days at St.
Clement's in Iloilo where he learned about rhyme and
meter. He also perfected his English there, thanks to
his participation in dramatics and to the Irish priests
who exposed the students to the works of great English
writers and poets. He majored in Economics at Ateneo
de Manila University but still found time for music,
writing songs and performing in a combo. He also emceed
local concerts at other universities and soon received
an offer to be an emcee on ABS-CBN's youth-oriented
"Nineteeners" show. |
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Besides
emceeing he also got the chance to sing some of his songs on
TV. Before long he received an offer to record his composition
"Afterglow" as a 45 RPM single. The success of this
song attracted the attention of Dyna Records, which soon released
a full 12-cut album of Joe Mari's music. The title single, the
now-classic "Deep in My Heart," was a number one hit
all over the Philippines in 1968.
In 1970 he married Mary Ann Ansaldo and for the first year of
their marriage the couple worked as missionaries in Japan. Three
years later they got the chance to revisit Japan when Joe Mari's
song "Can We Stop and Talk Awhile" was selected as
the Philippine entry to an international music festival held
in Tokyo. The song became a big hit for him back home and led
to his being offered his first TV special. In the 1970s he also
composed music scores for the movies of many of the Philippines'
top directors, a taxing job which did not pay very well.
In addition to his music career Joe Mari also worked for his
father at the family's large sugar company. In 1972 when martial
law was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos, the sugar industry
became a government monopoly and the elder Chan advised his
son to try the business out in the US, since they could no longer
trade in their own country. So the family relocated to New York
where they stayed for eleven years, returning home each July
and August.
After the Marcoses were forced out, Joe decided to move his
family back home. With the sugar industry having been returned
to the private sector by President Corazon Aquino, he was assigned
to run a sugar central recently acquired by his family in Negros
Occidental,. At the same time he became more successful than
ever with his music. He released "Christmas in Our Hearts,"
which became the all-time best-selling Christmas album in the
Philippines. The popular title tune, a duet with daughter Liza,
won the Awit Trophy for Best Christmas Recording, an honor he
would receive again several years later for "Christmas
Past."
In
the early 1990s Jose's album "Constant Change" was
released, and became a runaway bestseller. It contained several
big hits including "Beautiful Girl," "Can't We
Start Over Again," "Please Be Careful With My Heart"
(duet with Regine Velaquez), "My Girl, My Woman, My Friend"
(duet with Janet Basco) and the title song. Some os the songs
became hits in other Asian countries like Indonesia, Singapore
and Malaysia. His next album, "Souvenirs" was a departure
from his usual fare in that it mostly featured renditions of
favorite songs written by other composers, from Glenn Miller
to Burt Bacharach to Neil Sedaka.
In 2000 Jose Mari Chan released "Words and Music,"
a songbook containing the lyrics, guitar chords and piano music
for 21 of his best-loved compositions, plus the story behind
each song. His hope is that putting the music down on paper
will enable his songs to be enjoyed by future generations. "The
hope of every composer is for his songs to outlive him and to
be sung long after he's gone," he said. The book was very
well-received and in 2003 a second volume was released, with
24 more songs.
His latest album, "A Heart's Journey," won the 2003
Awit Award for Album of the Year. The songs have a recurrent
theme of love won and lost. Joe Mari's introduction on the album
liner notes says, "In this album, I take you down the winding
path of a heart's journey. From love's first awakening to the
joy of young love, from the thrill of romance to the pain of
love lost, all in a heart's journey." Among the highlights:
the catchy carrier single "Easier Said Than Done,"
"A Day in the Life of a Song," which is a new composition
that uses titles of Beatle songs, and two versions of "I
Have Found My World In You," one sung by daughter Liza,
the other by Joe himself.
Unfortunately the wonderful songs of Jose Mari Chan have not
yet been discovered by most US music fans except for Fil-Ams.
One can only hope that somewhere along the line, some studio
musician or record producer familiar with Joe Mari's work will
introduce his music to one or more top US recording artists.
Surely "Beautiful Girl" recorded by the likes of Ryan
Cabrera or Clay Aiken would climb rapidly up the charts! Without
a doubt, "Christmas Past" or "A Wish on Christmas
Night," if given airplay on US radio stations during the
holiday season, could easily become Yuletide favorites in America.
It would not be hard to imagine Hilary Duff and a young male
costar singing "Please Be Careful with My Heart" to
each other in a contemporary movie. Hopefully someday, these
scenarios can be more than wishful thinking!
It is now more than 40 years since Jose Mari Chan wrote his
first song. His eleven albums have earned him, at last count,
37 platinum and two diamond awards, plus many other honors.
He has given concerts all over the world, entertaining Filipinos
everywhere with his gentle voice, tuneful melodies, and simple
but heartfelt lyrics that the average person can easily identify
with. His songs have been performed by almost every top artist
in the Philippines as well as by artists in Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Japan, Australia and other countries. He continues to be a successful
entrepreneur in the sugar industry and, more recently, in the
hotel business. Yet with all he has accomplished, he remains
humble and unassuming, a devoted family man with a strong religious
faith. He believes that his music is a gift from God. In the
foreword of his Words and Music songbook, Vol. 1, he writes,
"It is God who makes the music. Because of this, I cannot
lay claim to have 'created' the songs just as I cannot lay claim
to have given the breath of life of any of my children. Each
child is unique and important just as each song is special and
distinct. The songs were born out of different circumstances,
created out of different inspiration and each one bears a different
fruit."
Joe Mari and four of his five children recently returned from
Japan where they gave a series of concerts to benefit the Filipino-Japanese
Youth Foundation. The family combo featured son Joe on bass
and Michael on piano, with Franco playing the guitar in addition
to singing with Liza and their father. [aplus.co.id]
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