WE FIRST CAUGHT Binky Lampano at a show nearly three years ago, Blues Rocks the Museum, and the first impression we had was a visual one. Dressed in a camisa chino and a pair of suspenders that held up a pair of well-tailored slacks, and swigging from what looked to be a clear water bottle, we looked heavenward and asked whether this was going to be the harbinger of things to come: would blues in the new millennium have to be closely-cropped, neat, well-pressed and politically correct?

     And then we heard the voice: the growl, the yell, if you will, of the preacher. Down and dirty and rude, preaching the gospel of the blues, of a salvation that wasn’t to be found on another world, but down here on the ground. His lower lip thrust out determinedly, leading his defiant chin, Binky Lampano was spreading his own take on the truth that would set us free.

     The title Reverend suits Binky Lampano just fine, as he’s pretty much been preaching since the word go, starting in 1985 with the late, lamented Dean’s December (who made three well-received albums), a guest solo stint with Lokal Brown in 1990, and working through his own solo album (I Read the News) in 1991, his NIC (Newly Industrialized Combo) project in 1992, and the formation of the Lampano Group in 1996, stopping only for a brief stint in Los Angeles, where he immersed himself in the healing waters of the blues.

     Even his early influences (Van Morrison, James Brown, Freddie Aguilar, Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan, to name but a few) reflect a tendency to look upon the artist as preacher, poet, performer, or even visionary, but certainly always individual.

     Marriage and a new son a couple of years back threatened to sidetrack the artist as angry young man by turning him happy, but as everyone knows, the blues may be happy or sad, but it’s always with you.

     A couple of months back, he was asked about the possibility of guesting in Ugoy-Ugoy’s first major concert, Ugoy-Ugoy: The Real Swing, between sets at Lampano Alley’s regular Saturday-night gig at a club in Malate, and his reaction was rather matter-of-fact: sure, why not? The Reverend recognizing a new flock that would need saving. Not the band, mind you, but what would surely be the motley assemblage of friends and patrons and aficionados that would be begged, pleaded with, and cajoled into attending this slightly different concert by the members of the Zen Center.

     Some of the best swing music has its roots in the blues, after all, and if people come back to the blues from swing, well why not? The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the Lord, and salvation, works in mysterious ways.

[Article from the Real Swing Concert program, July 19, 1999, used with permission.  For a clip from the concert, click on the video link on the right.]

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Binky's band, the Newly Industrialized Combo, hit the cover of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine,  28 March 1993.

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Jocelyn de Jesus, Philippines Free Press, 8 May 1993

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"...then we heard the voice: the growl, the yell, if you will, of the preacher. Down and dirty and rude, preaching the gospel of the blues, of a salvation that wasn’t to be found on another world, but down here on the ground."   Bill Huang

photo:  Eddie Boy Escudero

Binky performs for the nationally televised Concert At The Park.