FLiPTiPLY

When I was younger, around grade school, I remember staying up at night watching this musical program on a Friday or Saturday night anchored by a salt and pepper haired man behind a piano. The show was Ryan, Ryan Musikahan.

I would try to catch it whenever I could, and it featured a wide array of the country's best and classiest music, anyone remember The Tux? And young emerging talents groomed by Mr. Cayabyab himself, remember Smokey Mountain and 14k? Heck, I was so influenced that I even attended voice classes at Ryan Cayabyab's Music Studio in Sunvar Plaza - yes funny isn't it - where I would be in the room next door to the kids from those groups. Moy Ortiz of The Company and Nolyn Cabahug (remember the do-re-mi dequadin tvc?) had a hard time with my voice then, as I was undergoing puberty, it would be high one minute and low the next (but that's another story).

Ultimately, there came the time it had to sign off, and a chapter in Philippine music history closed.

Recently, I've sorta realized that there may be a generation of Filipinos growing up out there who have never heard his compositions, never known his masterful arrangements, or don't know that some of the songs they hear nowadays originally stemmed from his genius.

Here are just some of the songs I could find, either composed or arranged by him, and obviously some of these are part of my all-time favorites, and I hope everyone tries to give them a listen, even if they're not the most popular music out there. I'm on a search for more (I wonder if tape conversions to mp3 are clean??) and hopefully I will add to this playlist.