7/7/2023 0 Comments Teo singer![]() Teo`s tenor voice is warm but at the same time cool. He also has a cover of the song Imagine by John Lennon, Words by the Bee Gees, Yesterday (Beatles), How can I tell you? by Cat Stevens, Sailing by Rod Stewart and Babe by Styxx. One can listen to Teo’s rendition of Balita (News ), a song of Asin, a famous Filipino folk band (Salt of the Earth). In order to learn more about Teo, I went on YouTube to find some performances of Teo Mance and found some videos posted by Gordon Francis Hamilton. In those the days, the struggle to be recognized was really tough and for Teo to shine in a period when multiculturalism was still young, is really a huge achievement in terms of being out there representing the community in the field of culture as a Filipino troubadour. ![]() Today, as a singer-songwriter, I am one of the few in the Filipino community who is just keeping the embers of folk music burning until the genre rises again from the dead.įilipinos in Winnipeg now numbering 70,000 while back in the days of Teo, we were only half of this number. Wow, I can imagine how successful Teo was during those times when folksongs, ballads etc. The Filipino Journal article also mentioned that he played at Vidoni’s standing room only. Teo also had gigs in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California and Florida. Regis Hotel, Desottos, Summer Breese Cafe and Manhattans. Here in Manitoba, he played at Act 11, The Cork and Fork, Matheos, El Cafe, a favourite hang-out of the activist community back in the mid-80s, Vidoni’s, St. While he was in Germany, he played professionally at Danny’s pan. I read the artist bio that Mar Mance sent me and found that Teo played in a lot of places. Mar further said that when he arrived here in 1989,” Teo was already regularly performing at the Holiday Inn or what we know now as the Delta Hotel. Mar commented that “Teo thoroughly enjoyed entertaining many audiences, including performing at the Filipino New Years Eve ball at the Holiday Inn” (Filipino Journal, 1989). During this time, Teo used a stage name Phil Mance, according to the Filipino Journal 1989. I learned from Mar Mance that Teo arrived in Winnipeg back in 1974 and joined a band named Mikrobyo (The Microbes) as a lead singer. In the article of Leigh Anne Sommers published in Filipino Journal in October 1989, she wrote that Teo Mance immigrated to Germany in 1971. He then left to work in Germany at the age of 21 where he found his freedom playing the guitar and got really good at it. He asked me to join a rondalla group when I was in fourth grade so that we can have a guitar in the house. Teo is older than me by just over ten years. As young kids, we were deprived of many things that most growing kids our age enjoy. We had a fireworks business and small farm properties. Actually, Teo was hiding from our mother to play his guitar since our mother was very strict and a disciplinarian. He continued that “Love for music was kind of strong in our family and was reinforced by Teo’s passion. Mar Mance, a friend folksinger and brother of Teo informed me that playing the guitar and singing is the passion of Teo and it was Teo who influenced him. ![]() Most of the senior buskers in the Forks also affirm that they know Teo. Everywhere I sing, somebody would tell me that there was once a guy sporting a pony tail who performs folksongs in the best venues here in Winnipeg. “I was kind of inspired by Teo to busk, you know,” Tim said.Īs a singer-songwriter myself, writing about peoples’ struggles in the diaspora, I was intrigued by Teo Mance. I also learned from Tim that it was about the time that he was inspired to do busking. Tim added that Teo used to play with at the Forks with his Caucasian partner as his buddy. I asked Tim if he knows of a Filipino folk singer who was busking way back at the Forks? He said he knows one and his name is Teofilo “Teo” Mance. Bojangles when suddenly Tim Miyai, another friend busker, came by to listen to Al, his full time work buddy. We hang out at the Human Bean Café to listen to Al and requested him to play Mr. Teo Mance: Revisited Levy Abad August 13, 2016Įarly August, I went to the Forks with my wife to listen to buskers.
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