Composer, conductor and contemporary jazz pianist David Benoit, who’s back in the country for another concert after six years, is pleased with how FILharmoniKA resident conductor Gerard Salonga arranged several of his songs.

“A lot of my songs, believe it or not, haven’t been arranged for symphony orchestra so what he did was arrange them and added all the other instruments,” he said in an interview during the press conference for “David Benoit Live Manila 2010” that was held the day before its Feb. 11 schedule at the PICC Plenary Hall.

“From what I heard, it sounded great. I think the good thing is he grew up with my music. He understands it and he kinda knows how it’s supposed to sound,” he pointed out.

In our separate interview with Salonga, he shared that he readily agreed to create arrangements for Benoit’s six songs, including “Some Other Sunset” and “Every Step Of The Way,” when the five-time Grammy nominee – whom he found to be easy to work with as well as humble and nice – asked him to.

Salonga’s 60-piece orchestra will bring life to Benoit’s music while guest singer Bituin Escalante and sax player Tots Tolentino will give new interpretation to some of his songs.

Benoit, for his part, has mutual admiration for Lea Salonga’s younger brother who’s also a musical arranger and musical director. “I love working with him. He’s very young. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s passionate,” he said.

The songwriter whose hits include “Key To You,” “Promise Me A Carousel” and “After The Love Has Gone” felt flattered upon learning that two of his songs make it to Salonga’s list of best and most romantic songs.

Benoit first performed here in 1981 and has since been coming back for more shows. “[I also look] forward to the people and how nice they are and accommodating. That’s what I love about the Philippines,” he said, adding that romance binds us with his songs. “Filipinos love ballads and music that comes from the heart and that’s what I love and my kind of music, too.”

Proof of Benoit’s musical influence on Filipinos is the Philippine Tourism Board’s selection of his song, “Land Of The Loving,” as anthem and this will be featured in a multimedia presentation that will be played during the concert presented by Ambient Media, Shindig Productions and 106.7 Dream FM.

Unfortunately, Benoit hasn’t done much traveling around the country but he’s heard many great things about our beaches, like Amanpulo in Palawan, which he’s keen on visiting in the future.

In the meantime, a pre-Valentine’s Day date with his wife Kei in Tagaytay will hopefully be a start of his exploration of the country that has fallen in love with his music.

(For tickets, call Ticketnet at 9115555, Ticketworld at 8919999, PICC at 5516296 and Dream FM’s Hotline at 8924216.)