Traditionally when one imagines the music traditions of Filipino people, blackness or black roots are furthest from conjunction. At the very least, Filipinos are looked at as this outside group who do not have elements of black history or musicality at play within their narrative. However, it is necessary that we problematize Asian identity, both globally, and within American history. Furthermore, within the scope of American history lies an Asian American model minority myth contributes to the politicization of Filipinos, and many other Asian ethnicities, as withholding the stereotypical hardworking, high income earning, highly educated, non-trouble making or resistant, assimilation ready, immigrant values. This fate may be simply chalked up to the geography of the continent that the Philippines is located in and the histories that exist between the Philippines and her different colonizers. Contrary to the mainstream belief, Asian identity is not this all-encompassing and monolithic device where Asian culture exists in a vacuum. In contrast, the Filipino narrative is so important to understanding how Filipinos access black music traditions and how they are also a part of the whole story.
What is a Filipino? Filipinos can vary in their look and appearance depending upon what region of the the islands they are from, furthering the notion that it is foolish to think all Filipinos are the same.The diverse ethnic Filipino histories are something I will investigate fully in due time. In my assumption, there are thousands of distinct Filipino ethnicities and dialects, including the newer identity of the Filipino-American. Filipino identity lies in where their ancestors may have migrated to, what regions they are from, and what dialects that they speak. An excavation of the Philippines’ history (and the histories of nearby nations and territories) is not only important, but necessary to understanding the roots of these people. A deeper look into the history of Asia, particularly the archipelago nations of Southeast Asia and other oceanic island locales nearby, illuminate a compelling and rich narrative on who inhabited the islands first. This past aligns Filipinos with a global and historical blackness and links them to black people and culture worldwide.
The indigenous people of the Philippines can be traced back to their African roots by the early migrants that traveled east through India, eventually discovering and settling on the islands of Southeast Asia. These travelers and migrants would later be known as Austronesians. Austronesian people are various ethnic groups from Southeast Asia, other Pacific Oceanic islands, Indo-China, and East Africa. These peoples may include, but are not limited to, a majority of the indigenous ethnic groups in the Philippines, aborigines from Taiwan, the first in habitants of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Cocos Islands, greater Polynesia, Micronesia and Madagascar, as well as the Malays of Singapore, the Polynesians of New Zealand, Guam, Samoa, and Hawaii and the non-Papuan peoples of Melanesia. Austronesian roots may also be found in regions of Southern Thailand, the Cham areas in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the Hainan island province of China, parts of Sri Lanka, southern Myanmar, the southern tip of South Africa, Suriname, and some of the Andaman Islands. All of the aforementioned nations and territories have, at one point or another, been predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking people.
Focusing on Filipino people, you can see Austronesian traditions at play within many different elements of their culture. The first element to be mindful of when thinking through Austronesia is their written and oral traditions of language. The written language is so vital to understanding Austronesians because it is a signifier of commonality between the different ethnic groups. Through analyzing language, one may trace the processes by which specific nations once thought or communicated. The surviving Austronesian language of the Philippines is known as Baybayin. In fact, Baybayin can be sketched out as the linguistic mother to the later and more contemporary Filipino dialects of Tagalog, Bisaya, and Ilocano, just to name a few. Baybayin can also be referenced as the multitude and diverse styles of indigenous writing native to the Philippines. A term to collectedly call ancient Filipino writings is suyat. Some languages that are considered to as suyat are Buhid, Hanunó’o, Tagalog, Tagbanwa (Apurahuano), Kulitan, and many others. Because Tagalog is the most commonly spoken dialect of Filipino language, the version of Baybayin that is most popularly associated with the term is the Tagalog variety, although written history on Baybayin suggests that there were (and still are) many different ways to write and speak it.
In addition to written language, another quality that Austronesians have in common is their art. The most significant connection between all Austronesian people are their body art practices. Detailed and elaborate, these tattooing rituals are considered to be normal. This custom can be seen prevalently amongst many of the different Polynesian cultures; from which the the word tattoo is derived from. But if Polynesian people are also considered to be a part of the Austronesian grouping, it is both plausible and understandable why tattooing was so prevalent among Filipino people in their history, as well. Tattoo artist and author Lane Wilken writes in his book, Filipino Tattoos, about how when the Spanish first arrived in the Philippines, specifically the Visayas, they were greeted by the local inhabitants. Described as darker skinned people with intricate and complex markings on their skin, the Filipinos were dubbed as “pintados” by the Spanish, and then proceeded to name the Visayan Islands of the Philippines, Las Islas de Los Pintados, or The Islands of the Painted Ones. The people of the Visayan Islands were known tattoo their entire bodies, from head to toe. In addition to tattooing, other forms and traditions of art like clothing and garment, decorative pottery with beautiful patterns often resembling the ones in the tattooing, oral performance traditions, dance, and music existed within Filipino-Austronesian culture.
Austronesian music in the oceanic island nations of Southeast Asia possess a mixture of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic musical sonics that are fused together with the indigenous styling of Austronesian music and culture. For example, a musical style prevalent within the Arabic Southeast Asian geographies is known as gamelan. With its Islamic roots, gamelan was a type of orchestra that incorporates Xylophone-like and Allophone elements. This music style was, and still is, practiced within Filipino music. Throughout the southern islands of the Philippines, there are also more instruments that attribute their roots to Austronesian music culture. These instruments are named Kulitan, and a gong-chime named gangsa or gansa.
While hearing and watching the gansa being played, you may notice the musician pinching the ends of the brass bars that make the sounds. The reason behind why the instrumentalist pinches the ends of the bars is because the timbre of a bar being struck reverberates and when multiple notes are played at the same time, the sounds become blurred together. To avoid these legato and clashing tonalities, the instrumentalist strikes a bar, then mutes that same bar by pinching it, before striking another bar to play a new note.
The Austronesians that would have settled in pre-colonial Philippines would have been what Spanish conquistadors would have later named, the Negritos, meaning little black people. Raymundo C. Bañas articulates the ethnic identity of the early indigenous Filipino book in his fundamental text, Pilipino Music and Theater. Bañas writes that they were the earliest inhabitants of Luzon, Mindanao, Palawan, Panay, Negros, and some other islands. The Negritos are considered among the people whom other later Filipino ancestors found when they migrated to the archipelago. Bañas says the the chief amusement of the Negritos were music and dancing.
Bañas also furthers that the Negritos were known to use the five-tone, or pentatonic scale in their music. He also furthers that ancient Filipinos also practiced the, du-nu-ra (traditional love songs), tal-bun (festive celebration songs with improvised words to suit the occasion), and the dance performances of the piña camote and the piña pa-ni-lan which depict performances of humans farming and interacting with nature. Bañas categorizes the Negritos into different subgroupings. He identifies the Igorots, the Apayaos, the Ifugaos, and the Ilongot. He references Ilongot musical instruments and even writes about the aforementioned gansa, calling it a “tom-tom” and saying that it was “made of bronze and resembles a circular pan about twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, with a border of about two inches to the face. Hung from a string, it is beaten with a stick while the dancer marches and it is muffled with the open hand at a halt.”
The musical practices of the pre-colonial, non-Christian Philippine ethnic groups displays, in true beauty, the wonder and wealth of ancient Pilipino folk songs and dances before contact with the Western world. Yet, the purity of these folk traditions has been compromised as a part of Filipino colonization. These native and pagan Austronesian practices have become variations of their true forms filtered through a tinge of Spanish and American musical cultures and customs. With Spain imparting Catholicism unto Filipino people upon conquering them, Filipino musical performance went from more Afro-centric roots, ethnic, and non-western to more Euro-centric classical and orchestral. The Spanish also introduced to the Filipinos the organ, the drums, the piano, the guitar, and many other instruments that are now commonplace amongst Filipino musicians. Nonetheless, the persistence of the aboriginal music traditions remains through it all, with Filipino performance taking the spotlight no matter what iteration it may come packaged in.
FILIPINO FOLK MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE
Filipinos were performing music way before they ever arrived in America. They have even been making music before the Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese ever claimed territory on the land. The folk music traditions of the Philippines has such important and understudied pre-colonial roots. Will we be able to decipher it all? The sound and practices that have been Hispanicized and Anglicized over bloodshed and disputes over power, but have also been able to survive through it all? Music, dance, and performance traditions have been so integral to Filipino culture since the beginning of their existence. Perhaps, it is the archipelago’s beautiful spread of islands that would inspire the full harmony and tonalities that make up folk Filipino music traditions. Or rather, it could be the labor that the Filipino people provide unto every corner of this Earth. Whatever it may be, one thing can be sure: Filipinos love music.
If someone were to ask one of their historian friends about the Treaty of Paris, they may start telling you about the Treaty of Paris of 1763 that ended the French Indian War/Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France, and all of their allies. However, another treaty of the same name arguably holds more value to the course of American history in the Pacific. This is in reference to the Treaty of Paris of 1898, that among all of its contractual obligations, acted as the effective bill of sale for control over the Philippine islands to the United States of America by Spain. It is important to understand the fact that Spain has had such an impact over the Philippines’ both historically and culturally. And an element of Filipino culture where this definitely plays out is within music. Even before the Americans came in, Spain had over three hundred and thirty-three years to impose its colonial rule over the Philippines. But what were the music traditions of the pre-colonial Philippines?
Although so many assorted music culture and traditions permeate throughout the islands from northern Luzon down to Mindinao, there are a number of regional music, dance and performance traditions that allude to pre-colonial styling and aesthetics that originate in the central Philippine islands region of the Visayas. Ironaically enough, the Visayas are where Spanish explorers first came when they visted the archipelago. These dance and music folk traditions pay homage to the Philippines’ pre-colonial past. They allow for a glimpse, even in this moment, into the way that ancient Filipinos once lived.
The first performance tradition that comes out of The Visayas worth noting is Sinulog. The Sinulog festival is an annual cultural and religious festival held on third Sunday of every January in Cebu City, and is the center of the Santo Niño Catholic celebrations in all of the Philippines. Furthermore, the festival is consistently considered to be one of the most popular festivals in the Philippines. Every year, the festival attracts up to two million people from all over the world. Sinulog is famous for its procession, followed by street parties the night before and after the procession. Although Sinulog’s recent iterations demonstrate Filipino people’s homage to the Spanish and Catholic patron Santo Niño, Sinulog’s dance traditions actually existed for many years before Europeans came to the islands.
On March 16, 1521, Ferndinand Magellan arrived and planted the cross on the shores of Cebu, claiming the territory in the name of Spain. Upon being met by native Cebuanos, he presented the image of the Child of Jesus to the indigenous queen of Cebu at the time, Hara Humamay. This story is a big philosophical and mythological piece of Cebuano history and incorporates so much tradition in modern society that began with this initial interaction. Humamay was later named Queen Juana in commemoration of Juana, mother of King Carlos I of Spain. Along with the other monarchy of Cebu, native Cebuanos were baptized in the name of the Roman Catholic Church upon meeting their guests. At the moment of receiving the image of Santo Niño from Magellan, Queen Juana danced traditional, pre-colonial dances with joy to celebrate the welcoming of their guests. This celebration is often considered as the first Sinulog.
These traditions play out today and many of the original pre-colonial performance techniques that Queen Juana displayed have been preserved over time. Again, this specific Filipino dance tradition transposes and reimagines the arriving of Spaniard ships and citizens and the Philippines’ introduction to Catholicism. Sinulog dances are a representation of the Santo Niño being given to the native Queen of Cebu. A popular theme within Sinulog dances is Queen Juana holding the Santo Niño idol while performing the sacred steps and using its power to bless her people who have been afflicted with disease that are believed to be possessed by demons or evil spirits.
Sinulog is a celebration of Catholicism, there is no doubt to that. And it is also a tip-of-the-cap to the Philippines’ pagan histories and identities at the very same time. Today, this celebration is one of the most visually brilliant festivals in all of the islands. In fact, the word “sinulog” is derived from the Cebuano word “sulog” which literally translates to “water currents and movements.” This is relevant because the ideology behind the movement connects the origin story to the choreography. The dance steps are intended to ebb and flow in omnipresence, just like water.
The dance steps of sinulog movements are particularly simple. The most fundamental step of sinulog is moving one step forward twice and moving the same foot backward. Swift rhythmic movements of the feet are followed by a swaying motion as the dancer flows perpetually to and fro. To this day, the steps forward, steps backward technique is still practiced. Sinulog, in all of its beautiful spectacle, is also practiced in other places like Kabankalan City, Maasin City, Balingasag Misamis Oriental, Cagayan de Oro City, and Butuan City in smaller scale, but still paying homage to the gift of the Santo Niño to the native inhabitants.
Another folk Filipino celebration that comes out the Visayas and pays homage to the Philippines’ pre-colonial past is the Dinagyang festival of Iloilo. Like Sinulog, the history of Dinagyang can be traced through the devotion to the Santo Niño. The festival also commemorates the legendary barter trade from the Ati natives of Iloilo and the arrival of the Malay settlers. Today, every Dinagyang festival is culminated with the Ati-atihan Tirbal Dance Competition. Ten tribes from all over the Panay region converge in Iloilo City to participate in a competition of dance, music, and artistry that highlights the region’s special history. One dance that is native to Iloilo that is ruitually performed at Dinagyan, is the traditional performance of the Haka sa Iloilo.
The Haka sa Iloilo is a Filipino pre-colonial tribal dance that plays out like the more popular and studied haka of other Polynesian people including the Maori people of New Zealand and the Manu Siva Tau performed by the warriors of Samoa. This posture dance is one that celebrates life and is traditionally performed in a group, with loud expressive movements of the hands and stamping of the feet while rhythmically shouting. Haka are typically performed to welcome distinguished guests, to acknowledge great achievements, weddings, and funerals. It is frequently mislabeled as solely a war dance, although it is performed in anticipation of battle.
The Haka sa Iloilo shares a very similar practice to the haka performed by other nations. This dance performance is thousands of years old and furthers the notion that Filipinos and other island people of the Pacific Ocean share ancestry and culture; the Austronesian connection. The rhythm of the drum is the fundamental to the performance as the dancers move according to the beat. Women and men are dressed in tribal wear often barefoot and holding weapons or other instruments of war. The dancers stamp their feet and strike their body in unison while screaming. A particular trait that I noticed ring true in all iterations of haka are bulging eyes and protruding tongue. Perhaps, in the true spirit of the tradition occasionally being used for battle, this may be an intimidation tactic.
Another Filipino folk dance originating from the Visayas, and perhaps the most famous one, is the Tinikling. The dance is know to have been originated in Leyte. The dance involves two people beating, tapping, and sliding bamboo poles on the ground and against each other in coordination with one or more dancers who step over and in between the poles in a dance. It is traditionally danced to rondalla music, a sort of serenade played by an ensemble of stringed instruments which originated in Spain during the Middle Ages. The tinikling imitates the movement of the tikling birds as they walk between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers imitate the tikling bird’s legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles. What separates Tinikling from other Haka sa Iloilo is that the former developed during Spanish colonial era in the Philippines, while the latter is rooted in pre-colonial Filipino traditions.
Filipino music performances have existed for thousands of years. These traditions existed before the Spanish or the Americans ever thought to stake their claim on the archipelago. And regardless if Filipino people were subjected to colonization multiple times over hundreds of years, their performance traditions survived. Even if the traditions may have transformed over time, the nature of the ancient Filipino remains within the musicality and integrity to these sacred practices.
THE MUSIC OF EMPIRE: FILIPINOS AND JAZZ
When one imagines the development of American popular music at the turn of the twentieth century, the contributions of Filipinos are often silenced. Music scholarship in America is often dominated by narratives of white and black American musicians who pioneered the American sound. But contrary to popular belief, were there not other groups of people living in and performing music in America, too? Although there is plenty of scholarship and evidence speaking to the contributions of Latin musicians, the group often missing from this discourse on American popular music are musicians of Asian descent. More contemporary and popular jazz musicians of Asian descent like saxophonist Fred Ho (RIP), pianist Jon Jang, and bassist Tatsu Aoki illustrate the Asian musicality as it intersects to the indigenous American sound of jazz. Still, none of these amazingly gifted musicians that were mentioned are of Filipino descent. In fact, Filipinos are rarely mentioned as pioneering or intervening jazz musicians. However, through my research, I have found that Filipinos have been performing jazz in America and globally since jazz’ inception in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1917.
The Philippines’s relationship with the United States has always been contentious. The very nature of this association is rooted in empire. On April 21, 1898, the Spanish-American Wwar began. Lasting until August 13th of that same year, this war carried with it the political implications over control of the Spanish archipelago territories of Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines. Looking to bolster up its maritime militia fifteen years ahead of the impending First World War, America seemed insistentinsisted upon expanding its command across all of the world’s oceans. As a result of the Spanish-American Wwar’s ending, the T treaty of Paris was signed, forcing Spain to surrender its island territories to the United States. This forfeiture simultaneously began two important events in Filipino history: the Philippines’s colonial subjugation as territory of the United StatesU.S. of America from 1898-1946 and the resultant Philippine Insurrection, a war that lasted for three years where a rebel Filipino fleet fought in resistance of the new American order .
E. San Juan, Jr. writes in his foundational Filipino-American Studies text, Allegories of Resistance, about the Philippine resistance efforts. He mentions that by the time the U.S. had annexed the Philippines by military force, Filipino nationals had already formed over 200 resistance groups against Spain. Upon losing to American troops during the Philippine insurrection (1899-1902), U.S. military compounds were built on Philippine soil. For example, the U.S. renovated the naval base Subic Bay. Subic Bay was originally a Spanish military stronghold built in 1885, just three years before America seized it and interpolated the base with updates and new technology. Subic Bay, as an American institution on Filipino soil, became a compound large enough to house thousands of American soldiers over its life, from its seizure to its decommission in 1992.
What came immediately thereafter was the imposition of American societal and cultural values onto the inhabitants of the archipelago. Local Filipino social institutions such as government and education innately became more American. Speaking American-English became a prevalent business professional practice on the islands. The way that folks had previously existed had succumbed to the new and dominant American way. An important transmission within the entire scope of all things being culturally exchanged in the aftermath of the war is music.
Paraphrasing Filipino jazz music scholar, Richie C. Quirino, American popular music culture was communicated to Filipinos by way African-American military-men stationed in the Philippines during American colonial rule. Quirino cites musician and writer Artemio Agnes, who asserts that after being unhappy with the racial discrimination that they faced at the hands of their white-American comrades, some African-American soldiers deflected from their ranks in the army to join Filipino resistance efforts. With Filipinos and African-Americans both sharing space because of American empire and exploitation, it can be assumed that Filipinos and African-Americans found mutual resonance with being colonized subjects within the American context..
Quirino also furthers that this dispersal of American musical culture was also brought home by Filipino natives who studied abroad at U.S. colleges and universities and returned home with a new catalogue of music at their disposal. The students, called pensionados, were enabled by the Philippine Commission’s Act 854 that established a scholarship program for Filipino natives to attend colleges and universities in the United States. This act was enacted in August of 1903 and was the largest American scholarship program until the Fullbright Program was established in 1948.
Coinciding within this time period is the popularization of the phonograph as a media form for consumption. The commercial availability of phonographic records and the widespread travel of pensionados and fellow Filipino country(wo)men illustrate how American music potentially asserted its presence among early twentieth century popular culture. The phonograph allowed, for one of the first times in history, recorded music to be portable and replayed in different geographies. Perhaps, I am being imaginative when I envision Filipino scholars traveling to and from the Philippines with records in hand, or at the very least, a repertoire of favorite artists to share with their family once they returned home.
The music took off. Within twenty years, Filipinos were not only indulging in the American roots music that they had been introduced to by way of African-Americans, they were performing it. Perhaps it was their own subjugation as colonized bodies that allowed for the entre into understanding. Nevertheless, the people began to play. By nature of its location, Filipino musicians were found performing American jazz in metropolitan Filipino cities like Manila, and across Asia in cities like Shanghai and Tokyo. With access to commercial audiences in other Asian metropolitan cities, Filipino musicians were able to network with traveling American musicians living abroad in these cities. Pioneering musicians like Porfirio “Ping” Joaquin, Lou Borromeo, and his female counterpart Catalina “Mommy Kate” de la Cruz, were able to perform in the Philippines and to larger audiences abroad. Filipinos were not only performing American music in Asia, they were also becoming popular for performing jazz in America, too.
FILIPINOS PERFORMING JAZZ IN AMERICA
Filipinos have been performing music in America ever since they were brought to this country. An introduction to Filipino Studies in America will tell you that Filipinos first landed in Morro Bay, California in around 1587. Deeper knowledge will also tell you that Filipinos had their first permanent settlement in a community called Saint Malo, Louisiana in 1763. With Filipinos existing in this territory before hundreds of years before this country even declared independence, the history and competence of Filipino arts and performance in America are underdeveloped. There is so much uncovering that needs to be done about Filipino and Filipino-American performance art, but I do admire the scholarship of Lucy May San Pablo Burns, Sarita E. See, Christine Balance, Theo Gonsalves, and Mark Villegas. Through my work, I hope to simply add to this very important conversation.
Focusing on the time period of 1898-1946, the years that the Philippines was a territory of the United States, there is so much evidence suggesting that Filipinos were not only performing in the U.S., but they were actually a main attraction. Filipinos used their musicianship to sell out shows and wow crowds in the early 1900’s. In continuation, I deduce that there exists a symbiotic relationship between the maturation of jazz music in the United States and American territorial control of the Philippines. To put it simply, American cultural influence over the Philippines was (and still is) prevailing, specifically when the American government seized power over the archipelago after the end of Spanish-American war on December 10, 1898. Before that, the Philippines were under Spanish rule for approximately three hundred and thirty-three years. Adding to the tenure of Spain’s rule was the American rule from 1898 to 1946. The Philippines was an American subject and over the course of this rocky association, a plethora of lasting cultural exchanges took place between the distinct parties. The most fundamental exchange is the communication of musical traditions.
Filipino musicality has definitely been a topic of discourse in American history. Filipino-American scholar Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns writes about the infamous representations (and subsequent misrepresentations) of Filipino culture at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair in her book Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Empire. She states that amongst the racist and sexist exhibits that framed Filipino/as as savage Orientals, there were a few positives. Featured among these positive portrayals of the Filipino cultural aesthetic were the “musicianship and showmanship” of the Philippine Constabulary Band. This performance received high praise from then current president Theodore Roosevelt who invited the musical ensemble to the White House. However, San Pablo Burns characterizes this effort on behalf of the commander in chief as an attempt to perpetuate United States imperial policy over the newly acquired American property. It is plausible that Roosevelt was being selfish in this regard. Nevertheless, the fact that Filipino musicians were being commended for their talents during this part of American history is worth noting. This particular instance at the St. Louis World’s Fair was not the first or last time that Filipinos, American music and communities close to the Mississippi River have intersected.
The reciprocal effects of colonization often produce migrations of indigenous populations to the land of their occupants as well as abroad. This practice most certainly occurred during the American occupation of the Philippines; where Filipino people migrated to the United States increasingly after 1898. However, as Richie Quirino notes in his book Pinoy Jazz Traditions, by 1898, Filipino people were already in New Orleans, Louisiana by transport of their earlier colonists, the Spanish. In fact, Quirino states that the earliest settlement of Filipinos in the United States was in a small fishing village called Saint Malo. The Filipino-American community of Saint Malo existed as early as the mid-18th century. Coincidently, American scholar Amiri Baraka writes in his fundamental book of American music, Blues People, that jazz as an American musical formation was beginning to take shape in the mid 18th century when Black musicians living in New Orleans began to master European musical instruments like “trombones, trumpets, and tubas”. As I have mentioned previously, Filipinos too, had been given European instruments by their colonizer. If the foundational American Negro music, the blues, and European music began to intersect during this pivotal point of history, in this specific geographic space, and there is proof that Filipinos were also thriving in this communal space, I can only imagine that Filipino musicianship could have been thrown into the mixture of the cultural forms that eventually led to the birth of jazz.
Two specific documents from early 20th century issues of The Billboard magazine suggest that Filipinos were migrating to the United States and performing American music. The earliest example, published on February 15, 1908, documents the Walling Ford Filipino Military Orchestra, a troupe of Filipino musicians making their first American tour. During their travels, they initially performed on the American west coast cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Oakland. This is likely due to the fact that the only method of travel from the Philippine Islands at the time was by ship and the closest American ports were located at the western coast. The accompanying photo shows all of the musicians playing guitar, an instrument that was introduced to the Filipinos over four hundred years ago by their Spanish colonizers. Given that Filipinos have appropriated the guitar as their own instrument for the better part of the last four centuries and that Filipinos were in New Orleans as early as the 18th century, Filipino musicians could have been some of the earliest American guitar players, especially along the Mississippi river. If Blackamerican soldiers were sharing music with Filipino people by 1898, then these traveling Filipino musicians of 1908 were already showing signs of multi-national musical fusions in the manifestation of the guitar from the Spanish, the Blackamerican musical traditions of blues and jazz from the soldiers, and Filipino cultural and stylistic appropriations of the aforementioned instruments and musical genres within their own musicianship. This all could possibly be the earliest formations of the Filipino musical genre that we now understand as Pinoy jazz.
The second article in The Billboard magazine, published on April 15, 1922, references Filipino musicians who are playing minstrel shows in Illinois and Missouri. These two states (as well as other states that border the Mississippi River) were stopping points for Minstrel Shows along the Chitlin’ Circuit, the collective title given to the series of performance locations throughout the eastern, southern and upper mid-west areas of the United States that were safe and acceptable for Black musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform in during racial segregation in the United States. It is likely that Filipino musicians were playing alongside Blackamerican musicians in various forms of Black performance from very early on in the developments of Blackamerican musical formations.
The fact that Filipino musicians were involved in minstrel shows brings up a number of questions about their racial location in the period and their social and political relationship to Blackness. The politic and stance of these Filipino musicians playing the minstrel shows is unclear. The very nature of minstrelsy is to lampoon the Black condition in the United States, often using farce like tactics that intentionally make some viewing groups uncomfortable. Also, I could not find anything concrete that alludes to whether or not these Filipino musicians were playing music behind Blackface white minstrel acts (white actors using burnt cork to Blacken their skin) or Black artists in Blackface minstrel acts. Yet if United States policy in the Philippines was strictly for economic and imperial purposes, then the subjugation of the Filipino people and their long history of suffering due to colonial presence is likened to that of the negro condition under the same United States of America. In no way am I claiming that the suffering of the Filipino is the exact same suffering of the African-American, but I am saying that there may be some elements of shared suffering as colonial bodies at the hands of the American regime.
The most important aspect that I hope rings through from all of this is that Filipino musicianship in the United States is nothing new. In fact, this performance tradition has not been given its proper due when it comes to documentation and discourse. If I was only able to find two articles on Filipinos performing jazz in America from 1898-1946, I can only imagine what other evidence exists in the archives. Elements in my research that are lacking up to this point in time is actual transcription or analysis of sound recording of the artists’ performances. I wish to find sound recordings so that I can properly uncover more truths. I hope to examine the messages, ideas, themes, and stories within the music of Filipinos in America from 1898-1946. Nevertheless, Filipinos and Black music performance are important to know and understand. Furthermore and more finite, Filipinos have been performing American music in the United States and globally for the better part of the last century. It is my mission to simply pay homage and give these artists their just due.
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