MANILA, Philippines—Lenny de Jesus is back with an old love.

After working for many years as a bureaucrat, Lenny — once tagged “Dragon Lady” of Malacañang — now finds it cool to be just one of the boys in a retro rock band.

“Everybody says they’ve never seen me this happy,” she tells Inquirer, beaming, while relaxing at home — the penthouse suite of a Makati condo where a corner of the living room has been turned into a band rehearsal space, complete with digital recording equipment. At the center sits a baby grand.

She picks up her late-model Gibson acoustic guitar, an Emmylou Harris signature edition, and strums the familiar chords of a tune by the Electromaniacs, the band Lenny has joined as rhythm guitarist.

It’s the same band that former actor/recording studio owner/retired politician Jose Mari Gonzalez managed in the 1960s.

The group is back, though fans should not expect to see it in a regular venue. It does accept invitations to perform at special shows or charity events. It was one of the most applauded acts among a distinguished lineup during the “Yeba” Combo Festival, a rare reunion concert of pioneering local bands held last May at Fort Bonifacio’s NBC Tent. Sharing the limelight with original Electromaniacs lead guitarist Ernie Delgado and drummer Lito Toribio was Lenny — the lone female member.

Nostalgic spell

As the audience fell under the nostalgic spell of “I Miss You So” and “Lovers’ Guitar,” Lenny provided a charming counterpoint: grooving to the beat, flashing a cheeky smile and enjoying every minute that she played acoustic rhythm guitar.

“People may think those pieces simple, but they’re really more complicated than foreign instrumental compositions,” says Lenny of the songs that Ernie wrote and recorded with the Electromaniacs some 40 years ago.

She adds that “I Miss You So” struck her so hard that she remembered hearing it as a grade schooler. “I realized, Electromaniacs pala ’yun. Tuwang-tuwa ako at kasama na ako sa banda.”

So how, and why, did this once controversial government figure — no less than former head of the Presidential Management Staff for Joseph Estrada and Fidel Ramos — suddenly engage in this un-businesslike pursuit?

UP jam session

In January last year, the State University’s Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity batch ’66 organized a reunion with a “jam session.” A band composed of frat brothers and friends was put together. In the lineup was Angelo Castro Jr. (drums), Andy Sta. Maria (lead guitar), Dodie Lagman (bass), Manny Topacio (rhythm guitar), and Boy Camara and Nancy Reyes on vocals.

Lenny’s domestic partner, Mon Abad, was to alternate on bass. She was asked to play piano.

She recalls: “After the show, Andy asked if I could join them again. This time, he wanted to play the music of The Shadows, which he requested me to study. He also looked for another bassist, but had difficulty finding a drummer.”

Walking Shadow

Lenny says that Andy decided he should talk to Lito Toribio of the Electromaniacs. “When our band was complete, we called it Walking Shadow, taken from a line in the Shakespeare play, ‘Macbeth.’”

Walking Shadow performed in a benefit show at Teatrino, Greenhills. The gig was very significant for Lenny, because the proceeds went to the Asosasyon ng Musikong Pilipino (AMP), a foundation seeking to protect the careers of local musicians. It currently has 146 members.

The Teatrino performance, which led to Lenny being invited to join The Electromaniacs, was followed by engagements at the Mandarin Hotel. It also marked the first few times that Lenny was seen playing rhythm guitar onstage. She had learned to play it in high school, with an elder brother. As for the piano, Lenny proudly declares she’s been at it for a good part of her life.

“The nuns in grade school taught me,” she says, recalling years spent at Nazareth School in Manila, where she graduated with honors. “Every day after lunch, I had to play the classics for 30 minutes.” She didn’t exactly relish it, especially as she watched classmates having fun outside the classroom.

But classical music would become second nature to her. At the family residence, her father, the late Justice and former Ombudsman Conrado Vasquez, often asked Lenny, youngest and only daughter among six siblings, to play piano as he bowed the violin.

In high school and college, Lenny recounts, she rarely went out. “Hindi ako pwedeng mag-party, parati akong nakakulong sa bahay, playing classical piano music.”

But the routine rubbed off in a positive way. “When I got married, I made it a point to have a piano at home. When I’m very tired from work, I would relax by playing the piano. ‘Pag galit ako, I play Chopin’s “Revolutionary Etude” and “Military Polonaise.”

Meanwhile, she also listened to The Beatles, Peter, Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkel and Dave Clark Five.

With a PhD in Psychology (also with honors, from UP Diliman), Lenny’s first job was with the faculty of her alma mater, and the Ateneo Graduate School in Makati. She also provided freelance consultancy services to government and private corporations. In 1987 she started working with the Department of Labor and Employment, and then became assistant secretary in the Office of President Cory, continued serving under FVR’s term, and held various key positions until Erap’s ouster.

That hectic pace has given way to a very relaxed schedule these days, as a board director in two financial institutions. She briefly returned to teaching at UP, but begged off when she became a member — and now a moving force — of the revitalized Electromaniacs.

An earlier reunion concert, organized by the website Pinoy Classic Rock (PCR) in La Union, motivated the Electromaniacs to be active again. “Lito asked if I wanted to play rhythm guitar,” Lenny recalls. “That was in March this year; the band was to have another concert in May (‘Yeba’). They gave me a set of songs to learn, with Ernie teaching me. A month before the concert, he asked, ‘Nagbabasa ka ba ng nota?’ When I said yes, sabi niya, ‘Isusulat ko na lang at basahin mo.’”

Shooting the breeze

In Lenny’s spacious Makati digs, the band hangs out several times a week to practice and shoot the breeze. Ernie is reportedly writing songs again, and there’s talk of recording a new CD.

Although she talks of being content “living a life” which she missed out on while working in government, other ideas play in Lenny’s head: “I’m trying to go into an area where I can impart something significant to the youth.”

She’s finding ways to convince the Department of Education to add more music studies in the curriculum. She explains, “Magkakaron ng demand for music pieces, instruments, teachers … but most of all, children will learn and develop music skills on a higher level.”

She’s also calling the attention of policy makers to the plight of Filipino musicians and the cause of Filipino music. “Sabi ko sa kanila, ‘The Beatles were knighted by the Queen of England because the band brought in so much money to the UK and helped solve the balance of trade problems at the time.’”

It bears watching how Lenny as a go-getter would fare in such objectives. In the meantime, she can’t wait to tell us more of her recent findings: “Malapit na kong maging senior citizen. The literature on aging shows that if you want to prevent Alzheimer’s or senility, and grow old healthy and happy, one of the most recommended areas of activity is music, like learning to play an instrument.”

Inspired by one of her four children who used to play the flute by her bedside whenever she felt sick, Lenny has learned to play it, too.

But the one that gets her enthralled is something her father told her: “A year before he died, sinabi niya na ’yun palang lolo ko, si Severo Vasquez, was the best euphonium player in Laguna. That’s when I understood where all this love for music came from.”

Email pconcepcion@inquirer.com.ph(Inquirer News Service)