Pop Meets Big Band Jazz,” held last Oct. 8, was a double celebration of 100 years of jazz, one of America’s most original art forms born at the turn of the century in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the opening of the first American Express Asia Office in 1916. A century later, that led to the strategic partnership forged with BDO today.
“Pop Meets Big Band Jazz” featured Bituin Escalante, Charito, Mon David, Cris Villonco, Yuki Arimasa, Kengo Nakamura, Juasa Kano and the AMP Band with Mel Villena, and was hosted by Paolo Bediones.
The music was a compilation of five eras: the Early Years, 1920s-1930s, by artists and composers Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, Coleman Hawkins, Louie Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald; the 1940s-1950s Standards or the music of Cole Porter, Alberto Dominguez, Glenn Miller, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Billy Holiday, Clifford Brown, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis; the 1960s-1970s Modern Pop Era with Aretha Franklin, Motown, Elvis Presley, Sarah Vaughan, Sergio Mendes and Chick Corea; 1980s-1990s pop, featuring the music of Billy Joel, Lou Rawls, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Jackson, Michael Bublé and Madonna; and the present era of Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson and Pharrell Williams.
YC Koh, president of Asia, American Express International, with other Amex executives joined BDO chair Teresita Sy-Coson in celebrating the brand’s centennial and welcome the launch of various signature products developed in cooperation with BDO Unibank in the Philippines.
According to Rolando C. Tanchanco, BDO executive vice president and consumer lending group head, “The 100 Years of American Express Gala is a grand celebration befitting the prestige and prominence that American Express is known for.
Longtime patrons were treated to an evening of good food, good music, and a raffle of four Cathay Pacific round-trip tickets to Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
