Rebirth of the Cool
THE ADVENTURIST - Victor Noriega
Photographed by Ryan Schierling at Tula’s Jazz Club, Seattle, Washington On June 15, 2006
Earshot Jazz, a Seattle-based, non-profit music, arts, and service organization, said Victor Noriega has “developed a distinct personal style that is both inventive and adventurous. . . . His piano playing is crisp and articulate, and his compositions fuse Classical and Filipino folk elements with a Jazz aesthetic.” Proof of this can be heard in Alay (2006, T&D Records), a piano trio set featuring original compositions and Jazz interpretations of traditional Filipino songs through which Noriega joins a pantheon of Filipino Jazz artists such as Angel Peña, Ryan Cayabyab, Bob Aves, and Charmaine Clamor. Like Aves, Noriega is pushing the envelope of the marriage of electronic and acoustic music on a project called Pontius Pilots, consisting of an array of real-instrument samples and electronic sounds in combination with live piano and keyboards. Regarding his latest CD, Fenceless, Noriega notes that in Seattle “there is an appreciation for experimentation—and that’s the attitude a city needs to have in order for its Jazz scene to produce new creative music.” Is Metro Manila listening? “When I’m playing an original tune and everyone in the band is on the same page and the audience is really into what is happening—it’s just magical. That’s what Jazz artists strive for: to never lose that feeling of everything and everyone (the band and the audience) in perfect alignment.” Noriega’s newest endeavor is Scenes from Shanghai, a record project that explores the culmination of his “experience living and performing in China during multiple residencies over the last four years.”
By Collis Davis
You’re still the baddest cat in Manila Tots. Keep it up!