I
t’s Saturday night,
and he’s sitting
at a table talking
to a couple in the patio at Pineapple
Village in Gilroy. He’s relaxed, joking, a
glass of red wine in hand. He greets new
diners: “Hey, how’s it going? Welcome.
What a beautiful night, huh?”
His break over, Michael “Miko”
Malinao, 67, a professional musician for
50 years, steps to the corner, sits, and
slips a Paul Reed Smith electric guitar
over his shoulder. He’s wearing black-
rimmed half glasses and a dark, straw
fedora. He has a salt-and-pepper pony
tail that trails down his back and he
sports a full mustache—black, streaked
with gray—and a thin, white Van Dyke
beard. He has on a blue Hawaiian shirt
with a Harley Davidson design. A thin
gold chain and cross hang around his
neck. And, his blue jeans cuffs are
folded up two turns.
He starts by saying, “I’m born and
raised in Gilroy, graduated from Gilroy
High. I played at the very first Garlic
Festival in 1979, and my band, Miko’s
Mon’Taj will be there this year on
Friday night. At the first Garlic Festival,
we didn’t know it was going to take
off like it did. That first day, they ran
out of beer and food. They had to run
into town for more.” He laughs. He
then plays two more sets of oldies: the
Eagles, the Beatles, James Taylor, Louis
Armstrong, Sinatra—going well past the
nine o'clock ending.
A week later, we’re having lunch at
Pineapple Village. His long hair is loose
under a visor that says “Hellgate Jetboat
Excursions.”
Making eye contact, he leans into
our conversation. Born into a musical
family?, I ask.
“No, not at all. My dad drove a
tractor. My mom worked at Gilroy
Foods. So, yeah, hard work was part
of growing up as a kid. A lot of values,
core values, are missing these days. I’ve
never been late or missed a gig in my
whole career.
“When I was five-years old, my
dad bought me an E-flat saxophone,
an alto sax. That started my musical
career. To this day, I have no idea why
he bought me a saxophone. I played
the sax from elementary through high
school; in orchestra, jazz, and marching
band, which was a lot of fun. When the
Beatles appeared, everything changed,
I was in the sixth grade. I promised my
mom that if she bought me a guitar, I
wouldn’t quit playing the saxophone, so
she bought me a Silvertone Guitar and
a Silvertone Amp, a whole eight watts.
I still have it.”
At our lunch, Miko says, “I’m all
self-taught. I took lessons from John
Garcia for a while, but I’m very much
ear trained. I put on my records, forty-
fives and thirty-threes, write my lyrics,
my chords, and where they need to
be; that’s pretty simplistic, but it’s very
efficient for me. If you want to play
music, the first thing is to listen and
play and learn the music you like. You
start off with ‘here’s a song I’d like to
learn’ and once you get that down, then
you pick up the next one. It’s all about
having fun. Don’t just pick up a book
and start on page one. No.
“If it’s danceable that’s what I like to
play—fast dancing or slow. If you’ve
got your foot tapping—I gotcha. That’s
where the magic is, and that’s where
the music is. And when you’re in a live
band setting, there’s just nothing like
it. Everybody coming together. You can
feel that. That’s magic—yes. No two
shows are the same, and it shouldn’t be.
And if they are, just buy the record. I
also DJ, and I put the same energy into
that. Playing or DJing, if there’s one
person or a hundred in the audience,
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
august/september 2019
there’s no difference. It’s just the joy of
playing that music.”
An article on sensualthinking.com
titled, “Music is Magic,” states that
“music is magic. With music, we soar,
relax or unwind. It is sensual refresh-
ment that completes us. We dream
without words and fly through time
and space without moving.”
Similarly, Miko says, “Music can
move you, and if that music moves
you, it makes you a better person. And
you start thinking, ‘hey there are good
things in the world.’ And that’s me,
that’s me. Music fits a need, and every
day you have a different need, it’s never
the same.”
My lunch arrives, “Oh, go ahead
and eat,” he says.
Back at his gig the previous Saturday
night, Miko asked, “Any birthdays
today?” A girl wearing a cowboy hat
and a shirt with gold sequins that spell
“Hogwarts,” raises her hand. “How old
are you? Nine! Wow! Are you a cow-
girl?” No, she says. Miko sings “Happy
Birthday,” he invited us to join in a sec-
ond round. Before leaving, she thanks
him. He shakes her hand.
The server delivers his salad: Miko
asks for chopsticks and continues,
“People are important to me. It’s part
of our human nature to be nice and
kind to people, and the more that that
happens the better our world is, even
if it’s just for a day, or for just the two,
three hours that I’m here. If I’m making
a difference in somebody’s life and they
walk away happy, it’s the world to me.
Music touches everybody regardless of
age, race, creed, or color. The music
that I play kind of hits everybody. The
bottom line comes at the end, when
you’ve done your performance and
everybody says they had a really
good time.”
One of the servers addresses Miko,
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