Photo by Kino Lim
THOSE who know Melito Baclay would always be wondering what the guy is up to. Actually, he is a scarce guy to have around when friends get together, and if he does show up, Mel seems to be wearing a different hat from what he donned the last time.
A couple of decades ago, we saw him accepting literary awards, which he capped with a Hall of Fame title as a poet. It was the time this writer became friends with Mel, when Sun.Star’s annual “Bangga sa Panulat sa Pinulungang Bisaya” recognized young new writers.
Then trying his hand as musician/lyricist, he composed award-winning songs for Cebu Pop Music Festival and was responsible for the popular singing group SAKDAP as founder. Sakdap, a well known Cebuano jazz quartet in the 80s and 90s and interpreted Baclay’s song “Agila,” which garnered an award in 1989 with the Cebu Pop Music Fest.
What I didn’t know was that Mel is known as musician first before anything else. This I learned from his friends from way back, like photographer/writer Bob Lim and diplomatic attache and poet Butch Bandillo. It seems that Mel’s musicality were kind of useful when visiting girlfriend’s dormitories run by nuns. The sisters would be awed by Mel’s piano playing so they were welcomed at the lobby. He also played the violin and guitar.
Mel kind of faded from artistic circles and was constantly traveling for some business venture and turned up handling a region-wide sales office for an insurance firm. He was also immersed in the seaweed farming industry for some time. It would be safe to assume that with his awards tucked tight, he’d be living off it for a while doing other things, resting assured. But music keeps pulling him back.
This time he teaches young people how to play the piano and and sing to his accompaniment as vocal coach.
Every Sunday for months now, Mel can be found at Salonga Music Store SM City Cebu. There he conducts a tight class schedule to 10 young students in one or two small rooms at the back of the music store. Salonga also offers lessons for guitar, drums, bass, violin and other instruments.
Salonga Music store, which opened first along Gen. Maxilom Avenue in the late 80s, catered to the local demand for musical instruments when the New Cebu Music band explosion was big. (One of the popular bands at the time was “The Monks” fronted by Alvin Chiong, son of store propreitor Aida Chiong, bested the Manila Band Introvoys in a band competition.)
Summer time would see an upsurge in enrollees says Sherwin John Enamoria, a friend of Mel, who has been teaching music there since 1986. Mel’s sister Susan also teaches piano since 1989.
Mel describes his training modules as a “combo of classic, contemporary and pop and at times I have to make some changes to fit my own style of teaching music.”
After a hectic day of one-hour lessons for 10 students, Mel takes a coffee break at a nearby pastry shop.
“My musical sensibilities are inclined to classical styles. I was trained to be a performance artist with the piano, but now I guess I’m just a frustrated musician,” he laments.
Despite his accolades as a writer/lyricist and composer, he has not really lived up to his “dream” of being a concert performer.
Still, Mel is happy to be sharing his talents to young people. “I have a lifelong interest in playing the piano. And it’s very encouraging to see that for most young people, the interest in music comes from the heart”.
