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| Butch Roxas Quintet |
Writer Remi Huppert and the Butch Roxas Quintet filled the return of Les Jeudis Culturels with a lot of jazz as the monthly cultural rendezvous presented by the Embassy of France and Alliance Française de Manille made a successful, swinging comeback.
After swtiching to online performances in 2020, the latest edition billed as Une Soirée, Très Swing saw the return of a live performance with an audience at the Alliance Française de Manille's Multi-Purpose Hall.
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| Remi Huppert |
The evening started with Remi Huppert giving a lecture/presentation on jazz, touching upon its history, influences and how the music genre flourished. He made several references to his written works but they are published in French and have not been translated to English. So it was difficult at times to understand fully what he meant having not read by of his novels.
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| Butch Roxas Quintet |
This was followed by a performance by the Butch Roxas Quintet. Taking cue from Hupert's presentation, the quintet made up of Butch Roxas and Erskine Basilio on guitars, Gerald Flores on bass, Ryan Villamor on piano/keyboard, and Fernando Mendoza on drums/percussion, along with guest artist Uela Basco on vocals performed not just jazz music, but also music closely related to the genre like blues and spirituals.
Since Une Soirée is basically a double feature, the whole event lasted around twice as long compared to previous editions prior to the pandemic. This only showed how much Les Jeudis Culturels was missed by Francophiles, jazz music enthusiasts, and culture vultures.
