Paul hails from The Philippines, and has been working in Singapore. Paul is a free-spirited performer, finding church repertoire in his early days ‘too careful’ and ‘lacked freedom’.
His music background began with the recorder; went on to guitar ; had a trying time with the keyboards ; dabbled in tin whistle and ocarina; and considered the ukulele a piece of toy and ‘prop for jokes’.
Being a founding member of the Humanist Music Day, he surprised us by choosing an instrument that is not usually associated with virtuoso performance. Three years working at the ukulele, he now composes on it, and thinks it a great instrument for painting on a silent canvas , doing art through the constant tweaking of acoustic rhythm, timbre and harmony.
Plucking and strumming , Paul played the ukulele connected into the guitar amp, with notes reverberating and hovering within the gallery. An instrument that featured generally bright sounds began to yield to his serious rendition of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Paul was visibly immersed in this opportunity to bounce these notes around, taking the audience’s returned energy to fuel his rhythm and movement with the four-stringed instrument. His powerful strums were counter-balanced by the deliberate and crisp slow plucks, as the music died. The applause was quick & furious , for most , if not all, had never heard a ukulele taken to such heights.
The encore piece was “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele, cheerful and well tempo’ed. Paul had the entire audience clapping along. You had to be there.
