Cultural blend: The French Mezcal Jazz Unit will team up with Vietnamese musicians to perform at the jazz concert Friends Reunited. — File Photo

HCM CITY (VNS)— The French Institute in Viet Nam will present Friends Reunited, a night of jazz music by the Mezcal Jazz Unit and Vietnamese musicians, at the Sofitel Saigon Plaza Hotel next Tuesday.

The institute said the concert is a unique French-Vietnamese art programme, combining jazz and Vietnamese traditional instruments.

The band Mezcal Jazz Unit, led by Emmanuel de Gouvello (bass, composition), plays its own creative music with mixed influences.

Some particularities of the music played by Mezcal Jazz Unit have been described as "the Mediterranean feeling of the musicians, the reminiscences of traditional melodies, a real attraction for oriental music, a rocky energy, a sense of humour, and a mix between emotional introspection and a very specifically Latin expressive attitude".

The band has gone on several tours spanning all five continents, during which they have met and collaborated with musicians from Eastern Europe, Asia, India and Africa.

Following successful meetings and several concerts in both France and Viet Nam from 2002 to 2007, which led to the creation of Search for Wind in 2005, the musicians of Mezcal Jazz Unit will return to HCM City to reunite with Vietnamese friends under a new French-Vietnamese programme combining jazz and Vietnamese traditional instruments.

Vietnamese musicians performing in the concert are: Tran Manh Tuan (saxophone); Nguyen Thi Hai Phuong (zither & t'rung or bamboo xylophone); Nguyen Thu Thuy (violin & zither) and Nguyen Anh Tan (lute). The French band comprises: Emmanuel de Gouvello (bass); Christophe Azema (saxophone); Jean Marie Frederic (guitar) and Vivian Peres (bass)

Tickets are on sale at www.ticketbox.vn or 0916001 706. — VNS