As one music critic wrote: “The best way to enjoy the Kiss the Bride’s music is to forget about terms like smooth jazz and just open your ears because you’ll hear more than you expect.”
Comprised of six prolific and seasoned musicians led by Tony Razon, the band’s main composer and pianist (and de facto bandleader), guitarist Joey Puyat, bassist Kingsley de los Santos, drummer Otep Concepcion, percussionist Uly Avante, and keyboardist Cecile Rodgers — the group’s marriage to music has been an endless honeymoon since they got together a few years back.
“It’s all his fault,” says Puyat jokingly points to Razon as OrangeMagazineTV sat down with the group one laid back weekday night at Strumms Bar in Makati.
“Tony and I are the cousins…but and I’d like to call him the undiscovered Razon because there are some other family members that have already made names for themselves such as Martin Razon Nievera and Bo Razon.”
The mood was relaxed as the group chatted with a few other writers — proving that their music (which was playing on the background) was definitely setting the right vibe.
“When I joined them a few years back, they weren’t a real band yet,” Puyat recalled as to how the group came together. “Although I’ve known Tony since we were in shorts, it was our first time to actually be together in a band.”
Puyat, a revered musician himself, having been part of several legendary groups such as Mother Earth and Blue Rats, said Tony had been asking him to form their own band, “Finally in 2008 he called me again and said, ‘Joe I think you are going to be interested in this one, come to my house and I am going to play some music on the piano, if you don’t like it its fine, but if you do I want you to become the guitar player of the band.”
“So I went there and listened to his songs and I liked it, so I asked what’s going to be the name of the band?” He said Kiss the Bride, which I thought was an odd name at first.”
He furthered, “It is because all of us have played music all of our lives and with different bands over the years, but now we have the chance to play our own music– all original! Something we’ve never done before. So it’s courting music our whole life and this is the marriage. And the highlight of the wedding is when the Priest says ‘You may now Kiss the Bride–the bride is our music now its time to dedicate our energies to our own music—so if you don’t like it…it was his idea!” he laughs again pointing to Razon.
Subway and Stories People who have listened to their music have likened them to the likes of other jazz greats such as Spyro Gyra and Dave Grusin, but Razon humbly states that they still have a lot to prove to earn those comparisons.
“I still cringe when we are compared to them, because these guys are already musical legends.” He then mentioned names such as the great Chic Corea, David Grusin, Herbie Hancock, Fats Waller, Oscar Peterson and guitarist Don Grusin as his influences.
Instead of referring to their music as Jazz, Razon says they prefer to describe it more a pop jazz. “I don’t want to make the claim of being jazz artists as purists may criticize us.”
“I wouldn’t call our music as pure jazz, I just call it music that’s nice to listen to,” Puyat interjects adding, “Tony as of this date, has written around 45 songs—more than enough for two more albums and each song sounds different.”
“You can also call it a bit of “pop jazz” because there is a certain mainstream feel to it, but on a different level. I write from the heart and about what I feel but I am not just writing for myself because I also want the audience to appreciate it,” Razon added. Although he initially admits that their songs are a bit more geared toward the more mature listener, he said they were quite surprised that a lot of young people say they enjoyed it as well.
“We did a workshop at the UST College of Music with all these young kids—and they loved it. We couldn’t imagine the reception we got! I spoke about composition while Joey spoke about guitar playing and we got swarmed on stage. It was such a nice feeling.”
What makes Kiss the Bride different? “We have made a commitment that we are not going to do the music of anybody else– absolutely no covers for us. We’ve done other people’s music in the past so this time we want to focus on doing our own music,” Puyat adds.
The group released their second album called Subway. The album was inspired by Razon’s many travels abroad. The fruition of the band’s creative efforts wouldn’t have been possible without the overall supervision and mentorship of their good friend and album producer Mari Lagdameo, who is a local jazz aficionado himself. Lagdameo, according to the band, has been largely responsible for supporting their initiatives in the local jazz circuit.
“The album experience can be compared to riding the subway: My idea is that the listener is sitting on a train and every time the doors open, you are presented with a new scene, a different scenery — and if you could put all those moments in freeze-frame and set them to music, they would probably sound like this. Every song has a different theme or sound, there is a bit of latin, some lounge music, jazz fusion, etc.” Razon detailed.
The album also features saxophone player Michael Guevarra and U.S.-based Andrew Dixon, alongside vocal contributions from Arla Concepcion and Martin Nievera for the bonus Christmas track. It is engineered by drummer Harald Huyssen.
Compared to their first album, Stories People, Puyat noted: “You might say that we were just kind of testing the waters, finding our way through the studio, back then with Subway, it’s like we already know where to go and how to get there, so this one is more refined, better produced and we got a better feel of our music.”
Just like the proverbial maze of trains plying the underground urban jungle with clockwork precision, Subway offers new sights and sounds around every bend, each destination opening doors to new musical vistas colored by a rich tapestry of moods and emotions.
Subway could aptly be called the soundtrack of a very personal travelogue, each song a fragment of a musical Rorschach inkblot that all tie up into a coherent whole.
Subway‘s eleven tracks include ‘The Awakening,’ ‘Una Sonrisa Suave,’ ‘Subway,’ ‘Devil Darlings,’ ‘Mickey and The Technorats,’ ‘Mornings with Uncle Bob,’ ‘If Only She Could Stay,’ ‘Freddy-Come-Knockin’,’ ‘Adios Carnaval,’ ‘White Crosses,’ and ‘The Christmas Secret’ (featuring Martin Nievera and Celine Fabie).
Kiss The Bride is currently doing a bar tour to promote Subway. Catch them live at Balete at Kamias on September 25.