HONOLULU — Jimmy Borges was 7 or 8 — living in Kalihi across the street from the fire station — when he first discovered what would become his life’s passion: jazz. ADVERTISING HONOLULU — Jimmy Borges was 7 or 8
HONOLULU — Jimmy Borges was 7 or 8 — living in Kalihi across the street from the fire station — when he first discovered what would become his life’s passion: jazz.
“It was after the war, and my mom worked at a hot dog stand and the GIs used to come by,” he said. “They’d bring records with big bands and played them — jazz and Frank Sinatra — and I thought, ‘Wow,’ that’s the sound I liked. I’d never heard those harmonies before because my father played piano by ear and that’s all I knew about music — until I heard those big-band sounds. I knew then that’s the direction, musically, I wanted to go.”
Now 80, Borges spent seven months at Jon deMello’s Mountain Apple Co. studio on the ground floor of the Nauru Tower on Ala Moana Boulevard completing a self-titled CD comprising tunes he had sung in a successful career that initially took him to San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York.
“Jimmy Borges” is the label’s final disc from its Honolulu site, as the company is downsizing and relocating to Kailua.
“It’s my dream come true,” said Borges of the album, which was released recently. He pared down hundreds of favorite tunes to 12.
“The songs represent a life statement; I sang them from different eras of my life,” he said. “Now I have something that will define my legacy after I’m gone.”
The CD is Mountain Apple’s first fully jazz endeavor. Although missing the vocal agility he employed with ease as a younger singer, Borges’ new work reflects the wisdom and refinement of an accomplished veteran performer.
“In some ways I think I sound mellower,” he said. “It’s a more seasoned voice. I’m still able to sing but my phrasing has changed. What I used to do when I was younger was try to show off that I could get a long vibrato line and sing 12 bars; I can’t do that anymore. But as I’ve aged, the meaning of the song has become more profound. This fits the 80-year-old Jimmy Borges.”
AFTER HIS stint as a mainland performer, the singer didn’t have an easy re-entry to the island music scene.
Shirley MacLaine, a movie star who also had a career on the Las Vegas stage, was the first one to “discover” the Portuguese-Hawaiian-Chinese crooner in Vegas when he was in his early 20s.
“That helped me get into the big time; I was still a nobody but a star of my own show, and when I went on to New York I did well, too,” he said. “Looking back, all the things I did on the mainland turned out to be preparation for my return. I came home seasoned.”
But, Borges said, “I didn’t fit. I was doing a San Francisco/Vegas/New York show in Hawaii, but my Hawaiian-ness was missing. Whatever I was doing was not working.”
He sought advice from Don Ho, the prevailing Mr. Waikiki in the ‘70s. In a tone and slur imitating Ho, Borges said the icon told him, “Just do what you gonna do. If they (audiences) like you, you can stay; if they no like you, you go back to San Francisco.”
Simple as it was, it made sense, Borges said. “I found a niche for my music, jazz, and that kept me going for the next 45 years.” The formula: Sing what you know, share what you love.
The CD mirrors this philosophy, showcasing such titles as “Old Devil Moon,” ‘’I’ve Got You Under My Skin/Night and Day,” ‘’A Song for You,” and “Here’s to Life.” Old-timers will savor the revisit to the Great American Songbook; a new generation will be introduced to a stylist specializing in the catalog of romantic tunes telling personal stories.
BORGES COUNTS the late singer Mel Torme as one of his mentors. “His voice was a pure instrument; he was like a horn, perfectly tuned, light and so pretty,” he said. Of course, Frank Sinatra — whom he calls “Mr. Sinatra” out of respect — is an idol, as well. “Once I started to listen to Mr. Sinatra, I learned he was the most important singer of the 20th century, with reason. He taught Torme, Tony Bennett, Jack Jones, Julius La Rosa and me. The crux of what we learned was to tell a story.”
Sinatra himself greenlighted Borges’ request to use his arrangements and charts for concerts, the lone entertainer accorded such rights.
Bennett, with whom Borges has performed, “has become a dear friend, and I will never forget what he said when I closed at Trappers (at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki), when he told the audience, ‘Wherever this man goes, follow him. He’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard.’”
A little-known fact about Borges: He dodges Hawaiian music.
“I’m nervous about not pronouncing words properly,” he admitted. “I used to perform at Knights Palace in Kalihi where Gabby Pahinui would also sing — anything he wanted, any way he wanted. Gabby occasionally maligned the language, but he got away with it.”
He’s never learned the lyrics to “Hawaii Aloha,” an anthem commonly sung at the conclusion of island functions. “But I recorded ‘Aloha ‘Oe,’” which is the final track on his CD. “And with the Hawaiian verse, too.”
