Manuel Kabajar Cabase

Mahnee Cabase
Birth name	Manuel Kabajar Cabase
Born	January 1, 1921 (1921-01-01) (age 90)
Origin	Cebu City, Philippines
Genres	Jazz Pop Latin
Occupations	songwriter musician arranger
Years active	1934–present

Manuel Kabajar Cabase aka as Mahnee Cabase or Manny Cabase (born January 1, 1921 in San Nicolas, Cebu City) is a Filipino composer, instrumentalist, and musical director for Visayan movies. Cabase was a singer, songwriter, musical director, computer musician, instrumentalist of at least 28 musical instruments, arranger, conductor, bandleader and musical director.^[1] He is also known to his fans as Manny Cabase in the Philippines and/or Mahnee Cabase in the USA. Cabase's music is now included in the new Jose Dodong Gullas "Halad Museum" in Cebu City.^[2]

Early life

Cabase showed prodigious talent for music at an early age, learning to play the guitar when he was only six. By the time he was 13 years old, he was already a member of an orchestra as guitarist and vocalist. Shortly thereafter, he was hired to play in a cabaret, getting paid for one peso and ten centavos a night. It was through his cabaret stint that he learned to play other instruments.

Music career

At 15, Cabase became a member of the group, Cebu Swingmasters, along with his brothers Narding and Siux. Cabase organized the group, Manny Cabase and Music Makers, together with his brother Siux. He also founded The Three Kings, which eventually evolved into The Vikings starring other Visayan musical greats like Stacs Huguete, Ramonito Del Rosario, and Art Maloy, until the group disbanded in 1962. In 1963, Mahnee again founded another group called Manny Cabase and the Sounds with his daughter Amapola on vocals. He eventually turned over the leadership of the group to his daughter.^[3]

Amapola eventually became one of Imelda Marcos’ Ambassadors of Goodwill and left for the States. Cabase and his wife, Shiela, joined their daughter in the US. They played at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, and on the “Amapola Presents Show” on Channel 20, KEMO-TV.

Cabase composed close to a hundred songs (now considered Visayan classics), many of which had his wife Sheila as lyricist. Some of his compositions are “Unsaon Ko,” “Patay’ng Buhi,” “Guihigugma Ko Ikaw,” “Awit Sa Damgo,” “Na-ibog Ako Kanimo,” “Unya Nahanaw Ka,” “Nahigwa-os,” “Carmen,” “Damgo Ko,” “Handumanan,”^[4][5]

References

1. ^ http://cebuanohalloffame.com/HOF-Entertainment/Music/Songwriters/mannycabasesongwriter.htm
2. ^ http://208.184.76.175/Article.aspx?articleId=540414&publicationSubCategoryId=51
3. ^ http://cebuanohalloffame.com/HOF-Entertainment/Music/Songwriters/songwriters.htm
4. ^ http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=540379&publicationSubCategoryId=107
5. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Manny-Cabase-Compositions/dp/B0013SHSUS

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Date of birth	January 1, 1921
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