Tovic Salvador

Odette Quesada's 60th birthday concert gets one more night

Article (news)

Pocholo Concepcion

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1738199438113IMG_20250124_204023.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:633px"/></div><div><br/></div><p>I was all ears right from the start of Odette Quesada’s 60th birthday show last January 24 at the BGC Arts Center. Aside from it being my first time to see her sing in the flesh, the artist — statuesque in casual chic attire — said she’ll be singing songs she didn’t write but loved to hear.</p><p>“One day I’ll fly away,” she began, her languid alto nudging my own memory back to slow afternoons listening to Brother Wayne on the radio. If this Randy Crawford single was first played in Manila in the same year it was released in 1980, Quesada was then 15.</p><p>What’s jaw-dropping was that two of Quesada’s earliest compositions, “Give Me a Chance” and “Don’t Know What to Say,” were recorded by Ric Segreto and released in 1982, when Quesada was only 17.</p><p>But I digress. At the concert, she proceeded to cover James Taylor, Carole King, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Patti Austin, and, surprise, Sting (“Fields of Gold”) and The Police (“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”) —  while all the songs’ album covers and lyrics were  flashed on a screen by the stage.</p><div><br/></div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1738199468510IMG_20250124_210054.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:633px"/></div><div><br/><strong>Beauty and poetry of lyrics</strong></div><p>Quesada wanted the audience not just to sing along, but also soak in the beauty and poetry of the lyrics.</p><p>Suddenly, I wasn’t just tripping on one song itself, but pondering on loneliness: “So far away, doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore…”  </p><p>Mitchell’s portrait from her 1969 debut album, &quot;Clouds,&quot; was on the screen, but it was hard not to get blown away by images from her meditation on life’s dualities in “Both Sides Now”: “Rows and flows of angel hair / And ice cream castles in the air / And feather canyons everywhere / I’ve looked at clouds that way…”</p><p>Funny to realize, though, that I’ve been mumbling the wrong word when singing along to “Fields of Gold” in the past — the last word in “upon the fields of holly” should really be “barley.”</p><p>A surprise appearance by Jay Durias turned out to be the first of the show’s several highlights.</p><p>Known for his ingenious keyboard skills and arranging talent, the South Border honcho engaged Quesada on a couple of “Never Gonna” tunes (one from the &quot;Staying Alive&quot; soundtrack by Cynthia Rhodes and Frank Stallone; the other recorded first by Dionne Warwick and written by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann), before doing a rare jazz jaunt version of The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.”</p><p>After which Quesada blurted, “Grabe. Sarap.”</p><div><br/></div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1738199502733IMG_20250124_214311.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:633px"/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Love letter</strong></div><p>The next sequence, in memory of Quesada’s husband and songwriting buddy Bodjie Dasig, almost dragged the show down to nostalgia overload. While “Zero Gravity” — which Quesada said Dasig gave to her as a gift — sounded like a sweet love letter, “Never My Love” (The Association) and “I Made It Through the Rain” (Barry Manilow) hung heavy with sentimentality.</p><p>But the show’s director, Rowell Santiago, knew one more sad song would be too much — so Quesada acceded to sing his recommended number, Lola Amour’s “Raining in Manila.”</p><p>That’s when the mood brightened up.</p><p>The show wound up when Quesada sent the message that she’s not about to retire while interpreting The Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around.”</p><p>But Quesada knew the full-house crowd would be disappointed not to hear any of her own songs, which was why she sang almost all of them in one long medley for the encore.</p><p>She picked out friends in the audience to jam — Fe delos Reyes who did a playful take on Music &amp; Magic bandmate Kuh Ledesma’s solo hit “Till I Met You”; Agot Isidro on “Friend of Mine”; and Raymond Lauchengco on the &quot;Bagets&quot; soundtrack “Farewell.”</p><p>Before finally taking a bow, Quesada did one more Dasig original, another of his gifts to her, whose title and lyrics sums up his undying love for his muse: “Habang Panahon.”</p><p>But one song from the show that somehow captured everything else Quesada wanted to say is in the lyrics of her James Taylor cover. I was wondering why she chose it over other more prominent JT hits, but the very first line of “Secret O’ Life” says it all: “The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”</p><p>That’s what she’s been doing now.</p><p>“Odette Quesada Hits 60” will have a repeat on Jan. 31 at the BGC Arts Center with guest Jay Durias.</p><div><strong><br/></strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS:</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n7v6_AnRIYI?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TchOiDauoMQ?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jaATrcYvaRk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwZjSIynLHQ?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>'Odette Quesada Hits 60' will have a repeat on Jan. 31 at the BGC Arts Center with guest Jay Durias.</p>

'Odette Quesada Hits 60' will have a repeat on Jan. 31 at the BGC Arts Center with guest Jay Durias.