Sensational singer/songwriter lighting up Bay Area music scene

Sunday, October 24, 2004

By L. PIERCE CARSON
Register Staff Writer

A friend suggested I really ought to check out a talented young bilingual singer/songwriter appearing in San Francisco's Plush Room last weekend.

Seems he'd charmed many in the Bay Area's Spanish-speaking community and was beginning to make inroads across the city's vast cultural landscape.

Well, I really don't need an excuse to drop by the Plush Room, considered by many to be the most ideal cabaret room in use in the U.S. today. With its imposing stained glass ceiling, ideal acoustics, perfect sight lines and polished staff, the Plush Room is enjoyable even without entertainment.

By showtime, the room had filled up with people of all ages and ethnic persuasions. One of San Francisco's premier pianists and arrangers, Larry O'Leno, ambled onto the tiny stage and we knew the singer we were about to see had the good sense to latch onto a real pro.

A diminutive native of Puerto Rico with a warm, welcoming smile, William Morín welcomed the full house and launched into a larger-than-life rendition of the Kurt Weill-Ogden Nash classic, "Speak Low," a samba-tempoed opener shot through with adrenaline. Both interpretation and arrangement were fine, but the performance was a bit over the top.

As it turned out, that was the only time in a two-hour presentation this engaging vocalist stubbed a toe. Because from that point on, it was a night to remember.

Morín is quick to tell you that he inherited his love of music, his vocal talents and his fascination with diverse cultures from his father. Oh, and dad also insisted his music-hungry son take up the guitar.

Accompanying himself on that stringed instrument with O'Leno providing requisite obbligato, Morín warmed hearts and soothed souls with a tender rendition of a song associated with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Con Te Partiro (I'll Go With You)." A mid-'60s ballad that served both Broadway/pop singers Robert Goulet and Anthony Newley well, "Young Only Yesterday," convinced us that this Latin linguist is a romantic at heart.

He spoke lovingly of a friend, an octogenarian, who'd passed away recently, lit a candle atop the piano and dedicated three songs to this friend. The first was a tune some say was written for Peggy Lee, "Here's To Life," by the songwriting team of Artie Butler and Phyllis Molinary. Shirley Horn recorded it and so did Ol' Blue Eyes, but Morín gave this celebration of the daily grind an uplifting touch all his own.

Then he surprised first time listeners by shifting to William Morín, the Vegas showroom entertainer -- dancing across the vest pocket stage as a ballad arrangement of "Besame Mucho" for guitar shifted to an uptempo night club showpiece that would have made José Feliciano and Gene Kelly proud.

Shortly after the 9/11 tragedy three years ago, Morín sat down and composed a haunting musical memory dedicated to all who lost their lives. His "I Remember You" is guaranteed to touch the heart. I found myself wiping away tears as I listened to the words wrapped in the singer/songwriter's honest emotion.

By now, I'd realized this was no ordinary cabaret show, no Bay Area showbiz wannabe inviting his friends over for obligatory ego stroking. No sirree, William Morín is the real McCoy -- a genuine first-rate talent waiting to be discovered by the masses.

I learned he's the son of parents born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the unofficial "Spanish" (as in Spain) capital of the commonwealth. Encouraged by a music-loving father, Morín's been playing the guitar since he was a boy. But music took a back seat to the workaday world of New York City. High finance around the globe was his focus for more than a decade, until he relocated to San Francisco in the late '90s.

Morín was at sixes and sevens trying to find his niche on the Left Coast. He consulted a professional job coach who coaxed out of him his innate love of music. About two years ago, this ingratiating thirtysomething decided to give it a go, to follow the prompt of this adviser who suggested a career in music. Concerts were scheduled and a pair of self-produced compact discs were recorded.

So, today we have William Morín, all smiles, clutching a microphone, snaking his hips across a cabaret stage to bring the music of locales as diverse as Tin Pan Alley and Puerto Rico to eager listeners. Whether Morín sings a Puerto Rican classic like "El Cumbachero" or a standard like Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's "Time After Time," his renditions encompass several cultures. He often begins a song in Spanish and shifts to the English lyric. On occasion, the process is reversed.

The other night he displayed his ability to converse in more than Spanish and English by including Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and a song made famous by Honolulu's Brudda Iz (real name, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole), titled "Hawaii '78," addressing the long-held native belief that becoming a U.S. territory was a land grab by Washington bureaucrats.

With warm, powerful tenor and an appreciation of lyrics as well as melody, Morín makes the Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh hit, "The Best Is Yet To Come," brand new again, and the familiar "Guantanamera" relatively easy to sing for all in the crowd, even those who don't claim Spanish as their mother tongue.

William Morín is a man to watch, a name to remember. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from him. Come to think of it, maybe he could serenade wine country music lovers at the Opera House or Copia. That's a great idea -- now where did I put those telephone numbers?

Morín has scheduled another Bay Area concert in San Francisco's Brava Theater in the Mission on Dec. 12. For those who don't want to wait for that, or the prospect of him appearing in Napa, you can pick up one or both of his CDs by logging onto www.WilliamMorin.com. The CDs not only contain the singer's own compositions but material as diverse as Roy Orbison's "Crying" and a heretofore unknown but heartfelt salute, "Farewell Saigon," sung in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The guy is amazing!