PETER’S PINOY PATTER: SEPTEMBER 2020

Bridge Generation News

BG Personality of the Month, Gabriel Baltazar, Jr., 89

Named as one of the best alto saxophone players in the world in numerous jazz polls by Downbeat Magazine and Playboy Magazine, Gabe gained international recognition as lead alto sax for the famed Stan Kenton orchestra during the band’s golden era of the 1960s.  His recorded version of “Stairway to the Stars” with Kenton is considered a definitive interpretation of the jazz classic.

The son of Gabriel Baltazar, Sr. who immigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii in the mid-1920s to work as a musician and Chiyoko Haraga, daughter of Japanese immigrant plantation workers, Gabe was born on November 1, 1930 in Hilo, HI.  At age eleven, encouraged by his musician father, he took up playing the clarinet but soon switched to alto saxophone.  As a teenager he was inspired to play jazz by the numerous big bands such as Artie Shaw and Claude Thornhill that were stationed at Hickam Air Field during World War II.  In 1945 he was the first recipient of a musical scholarship by the Filipino Art Lovers’ Club at the renowned Punahou School in Honolulu.  By the time he was sixteen Gabe had been playing professionally for several years. After graduation from high school he attended Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan for eight weeks and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland for two years.  It was during this time he met the legendary Charlie “Bird” Parker in New York City.  He peppered the famous alto sax player with questions about his playing style. Not surprisingly, his subsequent playing style closely resembled that of Parker.

After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Gabe returned to Hawaii and played with the Royal Hawaiian band for several years.  In 1960 he joined the Stan Kenton band and was immediately installed as lead alto saxophone player. (Incidentally, his younger brother Norman was also in the Kenton band playing trumpet.) For the next five years Gabe recorded seventeen critically acclaimed LPs with Kenton, including Grammy winning albums “West Side Story” and “Adventures in Jazz” while also backing such singers as Nat King Cole and Ann Richards.  Following his years with Kenton he made several records under his own name.  He also worked extensively in the Los Angeles recording studios, principally for NBC, where he played the alto sax in television orchestras for The Pat Boone Show, The Jerry Lewis Show, The Phyllis Diller Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Smothers Brothers Show, and the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He also found time to earn a BA degree from California State University, Los Angeles.

In 1969 Gabe returned to Hawaii to become assistant director of the Royal Hawaiian band where he remained until 1985 when he retired.  During his retirement years he periodically visited Filipino American musician friends Josie Canion and Flip Nunez in California.  They often engaged in impromptu jam sessions along with Josie’s singing daughters, “The Third Wave.”  It was during these years that I was privileged to meet Gabe.  Rather than talking about himself, he preferred talking about playing with jazz greats such as Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, James Moody, and Oliver Nelson.  The last time I saw Gabe was in 2006 during the FANHS National Conference in Honolulu — happily living in retirement in Kaneohe with his wife, the former Eleise Ann Kelley, who he married in 1954.

A “Homie” And Her First Book

Retired teacher and school administrator, Gloria (Balanon) Gates, who I grew up with in the Central Valley, recently had her first children’s book published — Ating and the Magic Carabao.  Available on Amazon, the book is based on the life of her Filipino immigrant mother who fulfilled her dream of comng to a new land.

Happy September Birthdays:

Mardena (Ambon) Ragsac, Peter Bacho, Pam Bulahan, Ernie Cabreana, Narce Caliva, Gloria (Carido) Nomura, Jocelyn (Mercado) Revilla, Jerry Salac, Aurelio Simon.

Pinakbet — News Across America

Did You Know?

Pitcher Bobby Chouinard became the first Major League Baseball player born in the Philippines when he debuted with the Oakland Athletics in 1996.

On July 22 the Commonwealth of Virginia named Luisa A. Igloria, professor of English at Old Dominion University as the state’s poet laureate.

The Apple TV+ original series “Dickinson,” stars 23-year-old Hailee Steinfeld.  Readers may recall Hailee was nominated for an Oscar at the age of 14 for her performance in “True Grit” (2010).

The most racially diverse ZIP Code in America is 98118 in Seattle where Filipinos comprise a significant portion of the population and where my family resided for twenty wonderful years.

Kudos to online weekly magazine “Positively Filipino” for its series Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous.  A July issue featured Mark Dacascos, actor and martial artist; Robyn Rodriguez, founder of the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies at UC Davis; Marissa Aroy, Emmy nominee for the documentary Delano Manongs; Cathi Tactaquin, Immigrant Rights Activist; Olivia Rodrigo, actor and singer; Shay Mitchell, actress, author, and model; and Jeremy Passion, singer, songwriter and producer.

Musings

Is Excluding People of Color in Favor of White Nationalism in America’s Future? Part  XI

Last month I wrote that the impeached president’s failure to manage the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating its disproportionate impact on People of Color. Black and Brown people continue to die at nearly 50% more than White people.  Moreover, he has utterly failed to provide the necessary leadership to reduce the disproportionate impact on POC.

This should not be surprising.  From the outset of his 2016 campaign and through his years as president, he has clearly expressed anti-POC positions:

1. Declared that Mexican immigrants were rapists at his kick off for the presidency;
2. In 2016 announced plans to build a southern wall to keep out Mexicans;
3. Failed to condemn White Nationalists’ anti-Semetic slogans at Charlottesville VA in August 2017;
4. In January 2018 labled Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries”;
5. In April 2018 initiated a family separation policy that placed refugee children from Central American countries in cages;
6. On July 2019 Trump declared four ethnic minority Congresswomen (all U.S. citizens) should, “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

Trump Sabotages USPS to try to Win the Election 

The U.S. Postal Service receives ZERO tax dollars for operating expenses.  It has relied exclusively on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations — until the coronavirus pandemic hit America. But because of the pandemic and the resulting decrease in business revenue, USPS resources have decreased to dangerous levels.  Because of the pandemic, delays of checks and medications for millions of veterans, the elderly, and the general public are increasing. And because of the pandemic, Americans are likely to vote by mail in greater numbers, thus adding to the pressure on the revenue strapped agency to operate efficiently.

Slowing the delivery of mail also threatens the complete count of ballots for the general election — a fundamental pillar of American democracy. Already, the coronavirus crisis has resulted in many states deciding to conduct the general election entirely by mail. The postal service’s lack of funding may further impact November 2020 elections by harming states’ efforts to expand absentee voting and voting by mail.

To mitigate the potential damage to the postal service, the House of Representatives included $25 billion in the coronavirus stimulus bill it passed in May. Sadly, the Senate is yet to act on the House bill.  Moreover, the impeached president expressed early opposition to the $25 billion allocation and threatened to veto the stimulus bill should it pass both houses of Congress. Why? Trump is fearful of losing the November election and admitted so on August 13 by stating,“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.  But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s newly appointed Postmaster General Lewis DeJoy initiated a number of draconian measures apparently calculated to suppress the vote by slowing the delivery of mail.  He ordered the immediate decommissioning of sorting machines, reduced overtime for postal workers,  removed mail collection boxes in swing states, and then sent letters to 46 states alerting them that the processing of ballots may not be completed to be counted in the general election. These measures by the Postmaster General quickly resulted in widespread public outrage. As a result of the nation’s pushback, DeJoy was forced to stop the wholesale removal of mail boxes on August 14; and on August 18, he announced that other measures apparently designed to slow the delivery of mail will be suspended until after the November election.  In his testimony before relevant Senate and House committees on August 21 and August 24, respectively, DeJoy denied that his changes were slowing down the delivery of mail.  His denials were strongly contradicted by Senate/House members, citing information and data received from postal employees, general public, and USPS reports.  Have DeJoy’s initiatives resulted in irreparable damage to USPS’s reputation of delivering the mail in a timely manner? Will DeJoy’s initiatives have an adverse impact on the election?  To be continued.

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