Lynn Sherman and the jazz idiom

The jazz gods must be smiling a lot these days – and for good reason.

Slowly but surely, their treasure trove of improvisational sketches is being heard all over again by generations whose only notions of jazz revolve around Kenny G, David Benoit and their contemporaries.

Thanks to the unflagging persistence of a few die-hard practitioners, more and more people are tuning in to that genuine swing thing – the real deal – as practiced and preached by its best proponents: Miles, Diz, Trane and Basie.

But wait. If these jazz legends have all gone on yonder to that great big jam in the sky, how come a jazz goddess still walks amongst us?

Lynn Sherman, lead vocalist of the Ugoy-Ugoy Band, couldn’t have been so rightly anointed. As one of the most visible proponents of the jazz idiom in the local scene these days, Lynn has taken the unlikely role as its ambassadress of goodwill, spreading the gospel of swing via full-blown big band settings and smaller, more intimate gigs featuring her trio.

Starting tomorrow until June 9, Lynn will be performing at Toto’s Bar in Davao City in a special show featuring her trio, composed of Meong Pacana on bass, Jorge San Jose on drums and Bond Samson on the piano. Her repertoire includes rearranged pop-jazz tunes from the Corrs, Sting, Paula Cole and some original compositions.

Looking every inch like the perfect jazz deity, Lynn’s disarming looks and sensuality could very well serve as her ticket to showbiz. But then, that’s not her cup of tea. She’d rather dabble in musicals, which she’s done for quite some time now. In 1997, she landed the pivotal role of the White Witch in the local production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, played Joanne in the much-acclaimed Manila Production of Rent (1999), took on the role of Crustacea in the Trumpets production of Little Mermaid last year and was also a part of The Vagina Monologues.

But that’s just the tip of Lynn’s multifaceted talents. At her best element, Lynn croons and wails, stretching the melodic limits of the tried-and-tested catalog of jazz standards popularized by Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Backed up by the robust strains of her band’s powerhouse horn section, Lynn’s mellifluous warblings could very well strike a resonant chord even among the musically uninformed.

Her eventful stint with the Ugoy-Ugoy band started out during her college days at the UP. Surprisingly, Lynn, a Humanities major, hung out more often at the College of Music because of her special electives there. "I used to hang out with the ‘barracks boys’," she recalls, alluding to the motley crew of jazz enthusiasts who would soon form the core of the Ugoy-Ugoy.

"One time, their singer couldn’t make it to a gig, so, at the spur of the moment, I had to learn some songs because they were slated for a special TV gig at Ryan’s TV show then (Ryan, Ryan Musikahan)," she adds.

"Grabe! It was so nerve wracking! Imagine, here was a virtual unknown, singing behind one of the finest jazz groups for a TV audience," Lynn gleefully reminisces. "And to think I was just a jazz greenhorn then. Before I met the guys, I would listen to Madonna, Sheena Easton and Heart."

Surprisingly, Lynn hasn’t really let go of her pop influences. Lest the public get the wrong notion that Ugoy-Ugoy is strictly a traditional jazz group, Lynn clarifies that such is not the case. "We’re not a jazz band in the strict sense," she clarifies. "We do Tower of Power, we do Count Basie arrangements, Chicago, some Beatles and some originals from our first album."

The core group of the Ugoy-Ugoy Band evolved from a splinter group from the UP Jazz Ensemble, one of the pioneering, experimental academe-based jazz conglomerates. "Some people think that we’re an ethnic group," she quips. "Actually, we started out as the Bourbon Street Big Band, but our manager then, Butch Dans, thought it sounded too foreign. That’s when he coined the name Ugoy-Ugoy, which rightfully spells rhythm, movement and that ‘fun’ attitude. Since then, the name stuck.

Despite their tenacity, Lynn and the band are very well aware of the constraints imposed by their chosen musical idiom. "Jazz is really an acquired taste," she elaborates. "It’s like looking a painting. For those who can’t see the beauty of it, you’d have to be there to point it out to them."

"Sometimes, we’d play jazz in very pop settings, and the people just couldn’t appreciate the arrangements, the dynamics of the big band," Lynn laments. Alluding to the proliferation of retro bands peddling rehashed ’70s and ’80s fare, she adds, "I think people’s listening tastes should evolve. But how can that happen if that’s all they see anyway?"

Let Lynn and her cohorts point the way. On July 13, the Ugoy-Ugoy will spearhead a special concert featuring Basti Artadi, Cynthia Alexander, Grace Nono, Cookie Chua and Tots Tolentino. And guess what they’ll be playing: totally rearranged, "jazzified and funkified" versions of Pinoy Rock tunes from the ’70s and the ’80s.

That should draw a resounding round of high-fives from the jazz gods.