I stopped by Chuaquico's recently (hope I spelled that last one right) to catch Wally Gonzales' band - first time I've been there since it was remodelled from Kiko's... there are a lot of expensive looking Fenders
(strats and teles) on the walls courtesy of owner Buddy Zamora.
Anyway in between sets I got to talk to two great bassists, Carlos Balcells (of the Dawn) who was in town and with his doctor-girlfriend (hope he gets married soon, its about time!!) and the great Dondi Ledesma (aka DNDI) who plays bass for Wally's band. Dondi has an unusual way of talking, he's actually very shy and has a thick Ilonggo accent - But he gave me a copy of his latest solo CD (his tenth album as DNDI) to review. He sells it only at his gigs. It's called "Fulcrum" and features about 5 prog-rock instrumentals and 5 or 6 movements of a long classical-rock piece what DNDI calls a "Concerto #3 for 4-string bass guitar". He scored it for a 120 piece orchestra but he played all the instruments via synthisizers.
It's Dondi's ambition to get this played at the CCP with a real orchestra. As for the prog-rock tunes, it kinda reminds me of a mix of Yes, Rush, and Dream Theater and old jazz fuson groups liek Weather Report and Return to Forever. Very difficult unison pasaages, odd time signatures, and killer drumming if they were played by a real drummer instead of programmed by Dondi. He played all the instruments and used a picollo bass for the guitar parts (there is a disclaimer saying that no electric guitars were used in the making of the album). The instrumentals are the furthest thing from "easy listening" but if you like picking out parts and solos amidst the thick textures it will be a blast to listen to.
For more info about Fulcrum, check out DNDI's website at
http://www.dondiledesma.com
