HUMANFOLK is the musical collaboration and concept band of guitarist-composer

Johnny Alegre Juan Bautista H. Alegre III (born June 4, 1955), known professionally as Johnny Alegre, is a jazz guitarist and composer from Manila, Philippines. He leads the jazz group Johnny Alegre Affinity and the world music group Humanfolk. Biography Ca ...

with the New York City–based

Fil-Am Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...

percussionist

Susie Ibarra Susie Ibarra (born Anaheim, November 15, 1970) is a contemporary composer and percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and indigenous musicians. One of SPIN's "100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music," she is kno ...

and her husband, drummer Roberto Juan Rodriguez, together with the multi-instrumentalist

Cynthia Alexander Cynthia Alexander (b. ''Cynthia Veronica Ayala'', 1971) is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist originally from the Philippines. She has performed on local and international stages including the Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia ...

and the

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

exponent Malek Lopez. This collective is a pioneering effort marking the convergence in a contemporary Philippine setting of multiple musical idioms (

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, rock,

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

kulintang Kulintang ( id, kolintang, ms, kulintangan) is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of ...

agung The agung is a set of two wide-rimmed, vertically suspended gongs used by the Maguindanao, Maranao, Sama-Bajau and Tausug people of the Philippines as a supportive instrument in kulintang ensembles. The agung is also ubiquitous among other gr ...

and indigenous percussion, with Iberian and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

influences). The group's name is a deliberate conjoining of the words "''human" ''and ''"folk''", akin to "''menfolk''" and "'' womenfolk"'', without prejudice to gender and frequently set in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

to distinguish it from a dictionary term.

History

The band started as a collaboration of musicians in the summer of 2008. The introduction of Alegre, Ibarra and Rodriguez at the United States Embassy in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

spurred a series of musical and social interactions. The impetus culminated in the recording sessions for the "Humanfolk Suite", a world music cycle composed by Alegre, for which Alexander and Lopez completed the HUMANFOLK quintet. Towards October 2008, the threesome of Alegre, Alexander, and Lopez performed a live semi-improvised score for a short, silent film by Sasha Palomares, entitled ''Une Femme Andalouse'', which was awarded the KODAK Best 16mm Experimental Film in that year by the

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Filmschool Competition. They were subsequently invited to perform at the 4th Philippine International Jazz & Arts Festival in February 2009, and a live collaborative performance with the Australian

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

virtuoso William Barton in January 2010, that also introduced vocalist-keyboardist Abby Clutario as a new principal member of the group. These appearances and many others that followed led to the release by MCA Music (

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

) of Humanfolk's eponymous album in May 2011. In 2012, Humanfolk was conferred an

Awit Award The Awit Awards are music awards in the Philippines given annually by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) to recognize the outstanding achievements in the music industry. The word "Awit" means "song" literally in Filipino. Th ...

for the song "

Para Sa Tao "Para Sa Tao" (''English'': "For The People") is a Philippine world music song by HUMANFOLK from their eponymous first album; composed by guitarist Johnny Alegre in 2009, and which became the group's carrier hit single. The song was arranged by ...

", as Best World Music Recording by the

Philippine Association of the Record Industry The Philippine Association of the Record Industry (Filipino: ''Kapisanan ng Industriya ng Plaka ng Pilipinas'', abbreviated as PARI) is a non-profit and private trade organization, that represents the recording industry distributors in the Phili ...

(PARI). Upon the exodus of two founding members, Cynthia Alexander (for the United States) and Malek Lopez (for Singapore), Alegre and Clutario have continued as Humanfolk's principal members in a configuration described as

Mark II Mark II or Mark 2 often refers to the second version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk." Mark II or Mark 2 may refer to: Military and weaponry * 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun ...

, which was introduced in 2013 before international audiences in Singapore's

Mosaic Music Festival Mosaic Music Festival was an annual 10-day-long music festival in Singapore that featured both local and overseas acts. From 2005-2014, the festival showcased a variety of music genres, ranging from indie-folk to hip-hop. It aimed to provide a pla ...

and Malaysia's Kota Kinabalu Jazz Festival. In the Philippines, the group performed at the 2nd CCP International Jazz Festival in September 2013, and recorded the promotional EP, ''Ephipany''. In January 2015, the group performed in India at the Saarang International Cultural Festival organized by

IIT Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has be ...

. Towards the end of 2015, the group was joined by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kris Gorra Dancel; and session percussionist Deej Rodriguez. This expanded group, described as Mark III, recorded the year-end

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

''Naglalarong Ilaw'', an independent release.

Members

Principal members

– guitars,

bungkaka A bungkaka, also known as the bamboo buzzer is a percussion instrument (idiophone) made out of bamboo common in numerous indigenous tribes around the Philippines such as the Ifugao, Kalinga, and Ibaloi The Ibaloi (also spelled Ibaloy; Ibaloi: ...

, piano,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, vocals *

–

kulintang a kayo The ''kulintang a kayo'' (literally, “wooden kulintang”) is a Philippine xylophone of the Maguindanaon people with eight tuned slabs strung horizontally atop a padded wooden antangan (rack). Made of hand-carved soft wood such as ''bayug'' (gen ...

, drum kit, vocals and

handclaps A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...

– guitars,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, vocals,

tongatong A ''tongatong'' is a percussion instrument made of various lengths of bamboo, which is found in the Kalinga province of the Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republik ...

* Roberto Juan Rodriguez – drum kit,

cajón A cajón (; "box", "crate" or "drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, ...

bongos Bongos ( es, bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' (hammer). The ...

* Malek Lopez – computer,

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

, keyboards * Abby Clutario – vocals, keyboards,

Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, ...

Mark II

– guitars, percussion, vocals * Abby Clutario – vocals, keyboards,

* Yuna Reguerra (1) –

* Rodney Vidanes (2) –

* Paolo Manuel (1) – drums * Zach Lucero (2) – drums

Mark III

– guitars, percussion, vocals * Kris Gorra Dancel – vocals, rhythm guitar, * Abby Clutario – vocals, keyboards,

* Rodney Vidanes –

* Zach Lucero – drums * Deej Rodriguez – percussion

Mark IV

– guitars, percussion, vocals * Kris Gorra Dancel – vocals, rhythm guitar, * Abby Clutario – vocals, keyboards,

*Tusa Montes –

, sarunai, percussion

Discography

Videography

Awards

References

External links

* *
Humanfolk on All About Jazz

Humanfolk on ReverbNation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Humanfolk Filipino-American musical groups Filipino folk music groups Kulintang instrumentalists Musical groups established in 2008 Musical groups from New York City