Viet Nam News
HCM CITY— A concert featuring jazz fusion and world music by four artists will be staged at HCM City’s VOH Music One this week.
The event, Vuong Tron - Sky & Earth, features Vietnamese-French singer Huong Thanh, Japanese zitherist Kengo Saito, French drummer Patrice Heral, and Malian Ballake Sissoko, a noted player of the kora (a lute-harp from Mali).
The artists will perform solo several pieces of jazz-fusion and world music, with an emphasis on folk culture.
Singer Thanh began her love for traditional music and cai luong (reformed opera) career from her father, famous composer Luu Huu Phuoc.
She began her career at a young age. In 1977 she moved to live in France and performed in Europe, and in 1995, began singing jazz.
She won the first prize Prix Musiques du Monde, presented by the national public radio channel France Musique in 2007.
Later she returned to Viet Nam to make the album Musique du Theatre Cai Luong/Cai Luong Music, recorded and distributed by Ocora Radio France.
Her album features songs in cai luong by well-known composers from southern provinces.
Thanh has released several albums, including Moon and Wind, Dragonfly, Mangustao and Fragile Beauty, which used jazz and Vietnamese folk music.
Her albums feature Vietnamese-French jazz artist Nguyen Le, artists such as Paolo Fresu of Italy, Renaud Garcia Fons of Spain, Dhafer Youssef of Tunisia, Richard Bona of Cameroon and Francois Verly of France.
In 2011, she performed in Cam Ky Thi Hoa (Music, Chess, Poem, Painting), a concert featuring the Camkytiwa band of four folk music players from China, South Korea and Japan, at the HCM City Music Conservatory.
In Vuong Tron - Sky & Earth, Thanh will perform songs using Vietnamese folk music and jazz.
The concerts will be held at 8pm on June 16 at VOH Music One on 37 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in District 1. Tickets are available at the box office. — VNS