Child’s Play

  Peter Quinn gets to the bottom of the story behind the signing of a new star in the making from the Philippines, Mishka Adams.

Question.  What do the guitarist Cameron Pierre, the Philippines office of the British Council and the song ‘God Bless the Child’ have in common?  Answer.  They all had some part to play in the signing of Candid’d latest songbird, Mishka Adams.

The British-Filipina singer was snapped up by Candid Records, following a guest appearance at a British Council-sponsored “Jazz in Time” concert featuring none other than Courtney Pine.  After a show-stealing performance of ‘God Bless the Child’, Allan Fajardo  (MD of Candid Records Philippines) – there to see the label’s guitar ace Cameron Pierre – requested a demo.  Mishka’s “video folio” was soon winging tis way to Candid CEO Alan Bates, courtesy of the British Council, and within two weeks Mishka was signing on the dotted line.

Which begs the question, did it all feel very sudden?  “Well I’m coping alright so far!  It is very sudden – I’m very surprised because I’m so young, I sometimes wonder if it’s really supposed to be happening to me now.  But it’s a good thing here in the Philippines because not a lot of people are aware of the jazz community and it’s quite a minority in the music scene.  Now that we’re getting a lot of young listeners it gives me the opportunity to open them up to everybody else as well.”  That minority status looks set to be overturned by Mishka and whole crop of new talent – other Filipino jazz artists recently signed to Candid include the similarly youthful singers Isha and Enrique Marcos, plus the jazz quintet Affinity.    Growing up in a fertile artistic environment, the 21-year-old Adams started to sing at the age of 13 when her mother (acclaimed Filipina sculptor Agnes Arellano) taught her folk songs.  The singer’s interest in jazz came even earlier than that at the age of 10 when she started sax lessons – and she has her boarding school music teacher in England, apparently something of a dyed-in-the-wool jazz fan, to thank for nurturing this interest.  Her infatuation with jazz continued into her teens when she joined a trio specializing in jazz standards at the school.  Then, after finishing A levels, Adams returned to the Philippines to continue her musical studies at the University of the Philippines’ Diliman College of Music, majoring in saxophone.  Since her return to Manila, Mishka has been creating a stir and turning heads on the local jazz scene, singing with Filipino acts such as Blue Echoes, Affinity and Pinikpikan in addition to performing solo gigs. 

Soon finding herself nominated in three categories at the 18th Awit Awards (the Filipino equivalent of the Grammys), Mishka ended up walking away with ‘Best New Female Recording Artist’, which came as a “big surprise”(although perhaps not as big a surprise as it was for the platinum album selling pop singer Kitchie Nadal, who had been widely tipped to take the gong).  Mishka received news of her success a night before her UK debut at Pizza Express at the end of May earlier this year.  And how did she enjoy her Soho debut?  “Interesting it was just a one-off showcase kind of thing before we do the album launch in September.  We managed to invite a lot of friends.  I was surprised to see the little cards that they put on the table to tell the audience members to be quiet – I’ve never seen that before!  We’re used to playing in noisy places, so it was a new experience to play to such an attentive audience.”  Making up part of this reverential gathering were several officials from the Philippine Embassy in London including the Ambassador himself – so no pressure there then!

The singer’s debut CD God Bless the Child (on which she also plays tenor sax and guitar) features 15 tracks, five of which she had a hand in writing.  “Two of them I wrote myself and the other three I wrote with Sammy Asuncion.  He’s a close family friend and he’s been teaching me guitar for a while.  Usually he writes all the chord progressions and I deal with the melody and the lyrics as well, then we get together with the band to arrange everything.”  My four-track album sampler  features two standards, a resolutely upbeat take on Kaper and Washington’s “On Green Dolphin Street’ plus, naturally, the song that made it all happen for her – the album’s title track.  Offering more of an insight into Mishka Adams the musicians, and potentially opening up the recording to a far wider audience than the jazz crowd, the two catchy originals ‘Where Do We Begin’ and ‘War of the Skies’ possess a candour and winning simplicity that augurs well for the future – it seems that her mother’s love of folk music and its emotional directness has certainly borne fruit!  Communicating the song’s message appears uppermost in the singer’s mind.  Other tracks on the album, I’m reliably informed, include ‘The Very Thought of You’, ‘Summertime’, ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’.

The singer’s two arrangers on the album, Asuncion and Edgar Avenir, bring a fresh perspective to the material and Candid will doubtless be hoping to emulate the phenomenal crossover success of Jamie Cullum.  UK jazz fans will be able to judge for themselves whether Mishka is another Cullum in the making when she launches her album as part of the forthcoming Candid Jazz Festival.  With Alan Bates’ nose for future star-spotting, you wouldn’t like to bet against it.    

excerpt from JazzWise Magazine, September 2005 issue

LINK RESOURCE: http://www.mishkaadams.com/?p=13