NOLI AURILLO doesn’t mind the Lennonesque comparisons: flowing hair, walrus-like eyeglasses (yes, that is what it is called), the long and narrow nose that looked like it was sculpted by some Italian Renaissance artist and a sense of humor that begets a high-pitched laugh.
“I’m a big fan of John Lennon and the Beatles,” Aurillo bared. “But, if you ask me who all my influences are, we’ll be here…for three days talking about my inspirations. [Those span] from rock, to jazz, to the blues and even reggae! I am never too old to learn.”
During a media session that to promote the Himig ng Pag-ibig show with long time Asin compatriot Lolita Carbon this coming Valentine’s Day at the Manila Hotel, Aurillo put on a display of his own brand of guitar wizardry before a spellbound audience of music journalists.
That the media session was held at the Balay Kalinaw inside the University of the Philippines (UP) campus isn’t lost on him.
“I wanted to enroll at the UP Conservatory of Music,” he blurted out from out of the blue like a sudden change in time signature. “But they wouldn’t have me. I didn’t get in, but my son did, and he graduated from there.”
Aurillo cackled once more. However, there isn’t any trace of bitterness in him. “You are who you are and what you make of yourself,” he declared with conviction. “You just have to work harder than everyone else.”
Doing it ‘ouido’
TO this day, the bespectacled guitarist cannot read or write notes. And he makes no bones about it. “I never let my shortcomings get the best of me,” he succinctly put. He claimed he does everything in ouido, or playing by ear.
And Aurillo has made a name for himself, not only with Asin and as a legendary folk-music performer who was a regular at the old Hobbit House in Malate, but also as a guitar wizard. For her part, Carbon swears that she loves performing with Aurillo. “He is very talented,” she gushed in Filipino, as Aurillo worked on a riff he just thought of on the spot. She claimed they had songs that only he could play in a special way. Afterward, she asked, to no one in particular, if there was anyone who was able to record those few, fleeting bars. That was a “eureka” moment. A germ of a song has been fermented. Aurillo laughed once more: “Kapa-kapa lang.” To borrow a line from Elton John’s ditty “Tiny Dancer”, Aurillo is a “music man.” Music is a part of his life “24/7 if possible,” he pointed out.
“The only time when music is not heard from me or my guitars is when there is a brownout or I am asleep.”
No slowing down
EVEN if he has been in the music industry for a couple of decades now, Aurillo shows no signs of slowing down. He said that he would like to record an album. He has all these songs and ideas in bits and pieces recorded or in his head. Timing, he emphasized, is everything. Such is the upcoming show. He said that, in reality, Himig ng Pag-ibig is a kind of a presentation that they have yet to do.
“This is a chance for me and [Carbon] to perform before a different audience,” and added the songs that they will perform will be outside the repertoire of the Filipina folk-rocker.
“So this will be a special performance.” And since it will be something out of the ordinary, they want to make it really special for the audience, their band and, most especially, the organizer Rockford Productions.
Aurillo is grateful for the chance to still be listened to; thus, he is considering this kapa-kapa as “extra special” as he blurted out a laugh anew.
He stood up. There was a latecomer who needed to interview him. He was grateful that there was another one to mesmerize. One more to amaze with his style: kapa-kapa lang.