Luis F. Borromeo, also known as Borromeo Lou, was a Filipino

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 m ...

musician and entertainer. Known as the "King of Jazz" in the Philippines, Borromeo popularized the music genre of jazz in the Philippines. He is also noted for popularizing bodabil, a Filipinized variation of the Western performance of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

. Borromeo reportedly coined the term himself from the Western counterpart of the art form, initially pronouncing bodabil as "vod-a-vil".

Biography

Borromeo is a native of Cebu coming from an affluent family. He first became involved in music in Leyte, where he had his early training in music and also went to the United States where he continued to pursue his studies in

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

. In 1915, as an enthusiast in the performance arts, Borromeo went to attend the Pan-Pacific International Exposition in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

to see stage shows and other performances. In one show, he was encourage by his fellow Filipinos to demonstrate his skills in playing the piano at the Dutch Pavilion. This led to him building a reputation as a musician. The jazz pianist later secured a deal to perform at the Orpheum Circuit, an American theatre chain which staged live shows and featured films. For three years, he performed at Orpheum theaters under the stage name Borromeo Luo in various parts of the United States such as

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, New York, Portland,

, and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

often with singers and dancers. He then became part of the D’avigneau's Celestials with Chinese Americans, Shun Tok Sethe and Men Toy. The trio performed jazz music in ethnic Chinese costume and was noted for their "oriental syncopation". In 1921, he returned the Philippines to perform at the

Manila Carnival Manila Carnival was an annual carnival festival held in Manila during the early American colonial period up to the time before the Second World War. It was organized by the American colonial administration to celebrate harmonious US and Philip ...

and formed a classical jazz band. The genre was received well by the local entertainment industry which lead to the development of a performance art which would later be known as bodabil. Borromeo also featured in the 1922 Manila Carnival where his own entertainment troupe, Borromeo Lou & Co., Ltd. which featured himself, acrobats, magicians, and other performers and musicians, featured in their own revue ''Borromeo Follies'' upon request of the fair committee. After the carnival, the group went on to perform as the Borromeo Lou's Stadium Vod-a-Vil at the Olympic Stadium in Manila. Other similar groups were established by the mid-1920s. Borromeo also did performances in the provinces outside Manila. Bodabil remained prevalent throughout the rest of the American colonial period in the Philippines. Not much is known about Borromeo's later life and his death since his death certificate in Cebu was lost during World War II. His children settled in the United States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borromeo, Luis People from Cebu Filipino jazz pianists Filipino male musical theatre actors Filipino jazz composers Filipino expatriates in the United States Vaudeville performers