Stockholm syndrome: Saxophonist Quyen Thien Dac will perform tunes inspired by Vietnamese folk melodies with a band of Swedish musicians. — File Photo

HA NOI — Vietnamese jazzman Quyen Thien Dac will perform Vietnamese folk melodies with his friends from Sweden this Sunday at the Ha Noi Opera House. The show entitled A Oi (Mother's Lullaby) will be an occasion for the 32 year-old artist to present his new album of the same name, recorded in Sweden last May.

Dac's band consists of musicians he met at the Malmo Academy of Music in Sweden, including Per-Oscar Nilson on guitar, Johnny Aman on bass, and Olle Dernevik on drums.

The group will perform seven original compositions imbued with the feeling of Vietnamese folk music, including Gio Bac (Northwind), A Oi, Phien Cho (Market Day), Trong Ken (Drum and Horn), Nhung Khoanh Khac Nam Bo (Southern Moments) and Vu Dieu Thang Long (Thang Long Dance). They will also perform some popular folk melodies.

Dac said that he wanted to combine jazz with folk music so that Vietnamese jazz would have its own voice.

"With the show, I wish to ‘Vietnamise' jazz," he said. "I hope that one day, when the public listens to a jazz melody that I have composed, they will say that they are listening to Vietnamese jazz."

In addition to the Ha Noi show, Dac and his band will perform at the Viet Nam Maritime University in Hai Phong.

Dac is the son of jazzman Quyen Van Minh, well-known as the first jazz and saxophone instructor at the Viet Nam National Academy of Music. Dac began to study saxophone when he was 15. Since 1997, he has performed regularly in Ha Noi, often at his father's nightclub, Minh's Jazz Club, now locates at 65 Quan Su Street. Dac studied in the US in 2004 and then began a two-year master's degree at the Malmo Academy in Sweden in 2010. — VNS