vong nguyet

VONG NGUYET- WISHING UPON THE MOON-

(VIETNAM)


(VIETNAM)

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

The Danish-Vietnamese musician Niels Lan Doky has together withVietnam’s leading composer and music producer Nguyen Quoc Trung

gathered a team of the very best and most popular musicians and vocalistsin today’s Vietnam. The project has been given the title VONG NGUYET

(WISHING UPON THE MOON) and held its initial concerts last June inVietnam (at the Youth Theater in Hanoi and the Opera House in Saigon)before flying to Denmark for a spectacular performance at the prestigiousRoskilde Festival. It’s a big set-up with a total of 12 musicians and singers onstage. Among others, the phenomenal male vocalist Tung Duong and notleast Vietnam’s greatest female singing diva, Thanh Lam. In the ultra-fastdeveloping modern Vietnam, the mixture of new and old is totally natural andsecond nature to the new generation of Vietnamese musicians. In the case ofVONG NGUYET this is reflected through an inspiring mixture between ancienttraditional Vietnamese music and contemporary modern pop (of the morecreative and sophisticated kind) resulting in music that is both challenging,enriching and surprisingly accessible.


(VIETNAM)

LINEUP:

Nguyen Quoc Trung (Musical Director, Keyboards, computer)

Niels Lan Doky (Musical Director, Producer, Keyboards)

Thanh Lam (featured Lead Vocals)

Tung Duong (featured Lead Vocals)

Ngo Thanh Hoai (Traditional Vocals)

Mai Thang (Background Vocals)

Le Xuan Dieu (Traditional Vocals & Traditional Instruments: Dan Co,Dan Nguyet, Bamboo Flute , Vienamese traditional oboe)

Nguyen Hoang Anh (Trad. Instruments: Bamboo Flute, Dan Bau)

Ho Hoai Anh (Keyboards & Traditional Instrument: Dan Bau)

Nguyen Thanh Thuy (Traditional Instrument: Dan Tranh)

Nguyen Ngoc Quan (Percussion)

Xavier Desandre-Navarre (Drums & Percussion)

Bent Bitte Iversen (Sound Technician)


(VIETNAM)

BACKGROUND:

In Vietnam, the music scene is primarily composer/songwriter-driven (unlikethe West where it is mainly vocalist-driven). Even though the vocalists on thesurface appear to have the most media visibility, it is primarily thecomposers and songwriters who hold the highest prestige and deepestrespect there.

It is in part for this reason that the Danish-Vietnamese musician Niels Lan

Doky today is virtually as known in Vietnam as he is in Denmark. Since thelate 1990s he has written a number of songs that have been released inVietnam and recorded by the singer Thanh Lam, who is a major icon thereand one of the biggest-ever stars in Vietnam.

Among the older composers/songwriters in Vietnam are legendary figuressuch as Trinh Con Son, Duong Thu and Pho Duc Phuong. However in the

modern Vietnam, the term « composer » has been expanded to also includeroles as record producer, band leader and musical director. The country’sleading young composers/songwriters are therefore all in reality (accordingto Western terminology) composer/songwriter/producer/musical director inall of the contexts that they appear in.

One of the biggest goals for any Vietnamese vocalist today is to achieve thehonor of working with one of the big « composers » of our era.

The keyboardist/composer/producer/bandleader Nguyen Quoc Trung has incurrent years established his self as the absolute top leading « composer » inVietnam.

A few years ago, the European audience briefly made his acquaintance aswell as that of Thanh Lam’s when they both appeared as special guests onNiels Lan Doky’s jazz/worldmusic fusion album « Asian Sessions » thatUniversal Music released in 1999, and also when they both appeared at theMontreux Jazz Festival as special guests with Swiss pop star Stephane Eicherand French/African drummer Manu Katché.

Nguyen Quoc Trung and Niels Lan Doky have together taken the initiativeto gather an all-star team of the absolute best and most popular musiciansand vocalists of today’s Vietnam. The project has been given the Vietnamesename «VONG NGUYET» which in English means «WISHING UPON THE

MOON».


(VIETNAM)

THE PROJECT:

The point of departure is a musical concept that fuses traditional Vietnamesemus i c w i t h mode rn c on t empo ra r y pop ( o f t h ecreative/progressive/sophisticated kind).

Very ancient, exotic and totally unique traditional Vietnamese musicinstruments are integrated in combination with contemporary elements as forexample percussion instruments and various samplers, sequencers,synthesizers and other modern electronic equipment.

Occasionally, this blend, very rich in nuances, almost acquires a futuristiccharacter. But only for outside listeners: Because Vietnam is today, on alllevels, a country in ultra-fast growth, and the blend of new and old istherefore generally accepted by the Vietnamese as something natural andinevitable. And this of course also applies for music.

VONG NGUYET comprises a total of 12 musicians and singers on stage,

including a total of 5 different vocalists.

It is worth noting, that live concerts in Vietnam are almost never by just onesingle artists, as we are accustomed to in the West. Live concerts in Vietnamare almost always big events with many different vocalists, who all come tosing just a small handful of songs each. These concerts are often big eventstaking place at stadiums, big halls, etc. For the European performances byVONG NGUYET it is therefore possible to create a real authentic Vietnameseconcert atmosphere, since not less than 5 different singers are a part of theprogram.

The headlining vocalists are Ms. Thanh Lam and Mr. Tung Duong.

The remaining part of the team consists of a total of 3 keyboard players,including the two musical directors Nguyen Quoc Trung and Niels Lan

Doky plus Ho Hoai Anh. The latter’s main instrument is the traditionalVietnamese Dan Bau (Monochord) which he will be playing extensively aswell.

Added to this are 2 percussionist, Nguyen Ngoc Quan and Xavier

Desandre-Navarre (Frenchman with strong ties to Vietnam) + a total of 5additional musicians (2 male and 3 female) with a background in traditionalVietnamese music and who all play multiple different instruments: Ngo

Thanh Hoai, Mai Thang, Le Xuan Dieu, Nguyen Hoang Anh andNguyen Thanh Thuy. Three of them are vocalists (with a specialty inVietnamese song tradition – contrary to Lam and Duong who are moremodern pop based vocalists) and together they cover the entire spectrum ofthe essential traditional Vietnamese instruments (which besides soundingexciting, compelling and exotic, also look quite colorful and interesting onstage) meaning the following instruments: Dan Co, Dan Nguyet, BambooFlute, Vietnamese Trad. Oboe, Dan Bau, Dan Tranh. It should also be

noted that the entire cast wears traditional Vietnamese clothes on

stage.


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THE MUSIC:

The music for VONG NGUYET is by Quoc Trung and other selectedVietnamese composers/songwriters (whom Quoc Trung and Niels Lan Dokyhave selected together). The program is created on the basis of a desire toshow the best that Vietnam has to offer musically today.

Vietnamese people are in general both dreaming, reflecting, contemplating,meditative, melancholic and not least poetic – which also is reflected in thetitles that Vietnamese choose to give their songs : "A River With One Bank","A Crane In The Mist", "The Road To Infinity," “Dreaming With Open Eyes"and of course “Wishing Upon The Moon.”

SELECTED MINI-BIOS:

NGUYEN QUOC TRUNG:

Quoc Trung has composed, arranged, bandled and produced CDs for virtuallyall of Vietnam's biggest stars without exception. He has also written musicfor a number of Asian feature films. He has the highest possible esteem onthe Vietnamese music scene and his central position in the VONG NGUYETproject has enabled the possibility to include Vietnam's very top artists. Theunique thing about Quoc Trung is that he has the ability, within his music, tofuse traditional Vietnamese music with modern influences without loosing theVietnamese identity. In his music he uses many traditional instruments (DanBau, Dan Tranh, Dan Co, etc.) which he blends with synthesizers, samplersand normal Western instruments.

THANH LAM:

By far Vietnams biggest female singing star. She is a daughter of thelegendary musician Thuân Yên and she has a very big, powerful and darkvoice (unlike most other Asian female vocalists who are generally highpitched).There is about 2.5 million hits on Google when searching on her name, inspite of the fact that she is hardly active outside of the Vietnamese circuit.She is 36 years old and has been highly established for many years. She is areal DIVA. She is regularly on tour abroad (especially in the USA and Canadawhere a combined 2 million Vietnamese immigrants live).The Prince Consort of Denmark, Prins Henrik, has attended a ThanhLam/Niels Lan Doky duo concert at the Hanoi Opera and was greatlyimpressed and has become a fan of Thanh Lam, expressing his wish that shewould come to Europe to explore her big potential for success there.Even though her point of departure is traditional Vietnamese music andmodern international pop music, she has a profound impact on anyone whohears her, regardless of taste, genre and style, due to her very high impactpersonal charisma on stage and her very powerful and overwhelming voice.

TUNG DUONG:

He is currently the hottest new name on the Vietnamese music scene when itcomes to male singers. He has a very charismatic appearance and is a verystrong, versatile and skilled singer. A beautiful nuanced voice. His CDs are allproduced by Vietnam’s leading producers/composers (Quoc Trung, Le MinhSon…) which in itself, in Vietnam in particular, is a reference for quality.Female singers are always dominating the Vietnamese media, so the factthat Tung Duong has caught on on the same level as his female singingcolleagues, is quite unusual and also a sign of a particularly significant talent.

HOAI ANH:

Plays the Dan Bau. As mentioned earlier, the Dan Bau (in English:Monochord) is the most characteristic Vietnamese instrument. It is the onlyinstrument to only exist in Vietnam under and it is a single-stringedinstrument which obtains a full register by creating a series of overtoneswhich emerge wen the string is hit with a special bamboo stick. Hoai Anh isone the country’s most respected Dan Bau players and his is known as thebest one when it comes to merging with other musical styles outside of thetraditional/classic Vietnamese folk music within which the Dan Bau has itsorigin. He is a really colorful, energetic, skilled and expressive musician.

NIELS LAN DOKY :

Niels Lan Doky (age 42) was born and raised in Copenhagen to a Danishmother and a Vietnamese father. He is the first Danish jazz musician sincebassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen to gain wide international renown andcritical acclaim. He first emerged on the jazz scene in 1979 as the 15 yearold protégé of American jazz legends Thad Jones and Ernie Wilkins. Hemoved to the USA in 1981 where he quickly came to prominence playing andrecording with such jazz icons as Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Charlie Haden,Ray Brown, David Sanborn, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, Al Jarreau, JohnScofield, the Brecker Brothers and many others. His extensive recordingcareer, which began in 1986, includes 25 albums as a leader and countlessalbums as a producer or sideman for other artists. His recording work isrepresented on such prestigious jazz labels as Blue Note, Columbia, Verveand Milestone. He is one of the most influential jazz pianists in his nativeDenmark and is also among the most popular jazz artists in Japan where hisalbums have received multiple awards and reached top positions on thenational bestseller charts. He has performed for many prominent worldfigures, including Pope Jean-Paul II and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. InJune of 2003, Denmark’s minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen appointed DokyMember of the Music Committee under the Danish Arts Council. Niels movedto Paris, France in 1989 where he currently resides with his family. Formore information please visit: www.nielslandoky.com

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