Good Music and Excellent Food at The X Bar

Ortigas Center crawls with bars, there's one on every corner of every kind- from convenience stores that have taken to serving alcohol and music, crowded by the call center practitioners, 24/7; to dives serving cheap street foods and cold beers; to pool halls and sports bar; to KTVs with their Hi-Definition, Sensurround systems; to stand alone bars playing live music with middle income prices and then hotels with their staple of live acts and fancy food. Each cater to a specific market, setting prices and entertainment fare accordingly. So if you're working in the area, there is not going to be a dirt of places to go come special occasions or the occasional three rounds to bide time while traffic flow eases. 

Nine years ago, I tried a place called the X bar, recommended by Arthur where he performed regularly. Apart from the X, Arthur had dozens of gigs in the circuit at that time, including the Kalesa Bar at the Hyatt-Regency  (Now Midas) where I chanced upon his Tuesday night performance.

Arthur is a big guy with long hair tied in a pony tail, making him look like a sumo wrestler rather than a Tony Bennet-James Ingram, Luther Vandross sound alike. Several foreign acts have chosen  Arthur to open, most famously for Pat Upton of the defunct Spiral Staircase. Conducting his show with a bit of comedic flair sometimes bordering on the ribald, I was immediately captivated by this huge guy and struck a conversation with him. Thus, he gave me his club schedule. His style sometimes goes off the wall as in a show at the Hard Rock Cafe where he poked fun at a foreigner who did not understand a single word of Tagalog. He had him sing obscene lyrics to an otherwise serious ballad that sent the audience rolling down the isle. The companions did not find it funny  and a little altercation ensued or that's how I remember the event.
At the first instance I tried it, the X bar stood unremarkable with its staid interiors, bad sound system and inattentive crew. But the food was great and judging by its prices, were totally cheap compared to other hotel bars. And the coffee,uhmmm was magnifico, made  even better with free refills to boot. With Arthur on stage, my night was complete.It thus became a once a week destination for me specifically on nights of Arthur's performance. Later. I would introduce it to friends who found the atmosphere cozy enough for repeat visits.

Observing the crowd in my weekly jaunt, there was this particular group that came to my attention who seem to attend Arthur's weekly gig as I did. It was a big group, 6 or 7, consisting of mostly gentlemen in their advance years. They seem fairly well-off, drinking single malt scotch or blue as well as gorging on expensive cuisines on the menu . At the last set, the group would invariably take to the stage on what would be an impromptu open mike. Arthur would sit beside me as we watched the going-ons. Looking like they enjoyed sequestering the stage, the group conducted the late night proceedings themselves, calling on  one another for turns on the stage or inviting the other habitues.  They could carry tunes with repertoires markedly 1940's-50's, leaning towards old Sinatra tunes  and classic musical materials from the likes of 'King and I', Guys and Dolls, or South Pacific and a mild sprinkling of 60's ditties  There were times, I myself took to the stage at the egging of Arthur but to my dismay the piano player wasn't familiar with 70's tunes.

In time, I was formally introduced by Arthur to the group. There was Danny who seemed to be always footing the tab and would sing MacArthur's Park (Jimmy Webb, composer, Edwin Morris publishing, 1968) in his inimitable rendition. Joey, another performer who would later replace Arthur does a hilarious parody behind Danny, of course. Another member of the entourage was Chito, the stage actor, who would be invariably asked for several anchors, specially by the ladies. Vic almost always took the house down with his rendition of "Big Spender' (Cole-Fields, from the Musical Sweet Charity, Chrysalis Music Group publisher, 1966) accompanied by a rollicking dance number then seguing into a display of his french. It was amusing hearing  songs with  original french lyrics, back to back with the English version like 'My Way' (Comme d' Habitude written by Claude Fracois and Jaques Revaux). My favorite remains 'Beyond the Sea' originally 'La Mer' composed by Charles Trenet (1913-2001) with the unrelated English adaptation by Jack Lawrence (1912-2009, Songwriters' Hall of Fame 1975)  . Ben, who passed in 2006 sang a variety of Sinatra tunes with an easy style. Once in a while his daughter would join the group singing samba ditties in their original Portuguese lyrics. Mel and Long sang with baritone voices that caught the attention of the crowds. Completing the group was Boy who loved dancing as well as singing. Once in while, he would dazzle with his piano playing.
At the piano was Ferdie Borja, player extraordinaire who was followed by the group of Danny from gig to gig. Prior to the x bar,  Ferdie played in a bar in Mabini for nine years. While never having formally studied piano, he started as a piano demonstrator and salesman and had played gigs with a multitude of big name singers in the club circuit.
Amazingly,he could play back a tune on the piano with just one hearing, sometimes annotating on paper with symbols that only he understands. To me, he is piano superhuman. The thing with Ferdie, however, is that at the time we got introduced, he was lost with 70's music and rock and roll in general. A month of us talking and jamming together sorted the problem.
Ferdie and me became good friends sharing a love for TV trivia apart from music. In his opening pieces, before the featured singers would take the stage, I would challenge him, now and then, to play now obscure TV series themes as that one from Mannix (CBS 1967-1975, music by Lalo Schifrin) or M.A.S.H (CBS 1972-83 theme by Johnny Mandel, Suicide is Painless). Do you remember Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat? Look it up.

Not a few big names visited the X bar in the years 2003-09, either brought along by Danny's group or those who were looking for Ferdie like: Senator Dick (he sings well), Vernie V., Karylle, Jose Marie, A Ferdie namesake who is lawyer of a previous president who also surprisingly sang very well; international singer David and some other movie denizens I cannot recall at the moment.
Some notable staple performers who graced the X bar stage include Joey Bautista of Mulato, guitarist par excellance Paul Sotto, Girl Valencia and the current Friday headline, the Big Bash.
Right now the X is under renovation. Through the years, service had improved to the relief of frequent visitors, I sincerely hope that with the renovation, they would change their sound system. I'm sure that as soon as it opens it would be back to good music and excellent food.