Yeah, the irony of it all was that at the height of the Pinoy Jazz genre, Bobby's name wasn't even mentioned with the likes of sina Ryan C., Boy Katindig, Eddie Munji III, etc., etc., yet by that time Bobby was already making a name for himself abroad. I think it was only towards the tail end of the PJ era that Bobby's name was getting local media exposure. I first heard of Bobby's name from a very unlikely source - my parents! During the 70s, ermats/erpats talked about this very good Ilonggo piano player who in the 60s roamed the bars and restaurants on what was then Dewey Boulevard. It was only when I lived in NYC in the early 90s that I got to know the depth of Bobby's solo and collaborative material. I brought a couple of disks back home and had ermats listen to them. She was in awe in how far Bob had gone from those Dewey days.
I saw Bobby play in Manila during the mid 80s. I think this was the first of his many trips back home after being away for so long. Tama ka Kedjo - Bobby had anggas, pero may K. The nice thing I liked about him was he knew his roots, and in fact thanked the old fogeys who were backing him up (I can't remember their names, but they were the maestros who Bobby played with during the 60s). He really was one nationalistic dude, giving props to the Pinoy musician as being one of the best in the world. He even made fun of the way he spoke English which still had a slight Ilonggo accent trying to make itself heard. As always, he was making fun of his "ka-karag-karag" session guys, their get-up, and their thinning tops. The highlight of that concert was when someone in the audience requested "Take Five". Everyone looked at one another, gave each other this blank look, and eventually smiled. Bobby then tapped out the familiar first few bars of that Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond classic, and all hell then broke loose. The interesting thing about that jam was it slithered seamlessly into the theme from Mission Impossible, and another ditty the title of which I forget, before morphing back to Take Five. Galing talaga, I wouldn't be surprised if that jam was something concocted during the Dewey Boulevard days and had been hibernating for a good twenty years.
Too bad he's not with us right now. I hope the likes of Boy Katindig, Bong Panera, Maestro Perf and the other top-rate overseas Pinoy musicians of every genre keep Bobby's legacy alive.
