VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (VIETNAM) VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (VIETNAM)

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

The Danish-Vietnamese musician Niels Lan Doky has together with Vietnam’s leading composer and music producer Nguyen Quoc Trung gathered a team of the very best and most popular musicians and vocalists in today’s Vietnam. The project has been given the title VONG NGUYET (WISHING UPON THE MOON) and held its initial concerts last June in Vietnam (at the Youth Theater in Hanoi and the Opera House in Saigon) before flying to Denmark for a spectacular performance at the prestigious Roskilde Festival. It’s a big set-up with a total of 12 musicians and singers on stage. Among others, the phenomenal male vocalist Tung Duong and not least Vietnam’s greatest female singing diva, Thanh Lam. In the ultra-fast developing modern Vietnam, the mixture of new and old is totally natural and second nature to the new generation of Vietnamese musicians. In the case of VONG NGUYET this is reflected through an inspiring mixture between ancient traditional Vietnamese music and contemporary modern pop (of the more creative and sophisticated kind) resulting in music that is both challenging, enriching and surprisingly accessible. VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (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) VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (VIETNAM)

BACKGROUND:

In Vietnam, the music scene is primarily composer/songwriter-driven (unlike the West where it is mainly vocalist-driven). Even though the vocalists on the surface appear to have the most media visibility, it is primarily the composers and songwriters who hold the highest prestige and deepest respect 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 the late 1990s he has written a number of songs that have been released in Vietnam and recorded by the singer Thanh Lam, who is a major icon there and one of the biggest-ever stars in Vietnam.

Among the older composers/songwriters in Vietnam are legendary figures such as Trinh Con Son, Duong Thu and Pho Duc Phuong. However in the modern Vietnam, the term « composer » has been expanded to also include roles as record producer, band leader and musical director. The country’s leading young composers/songwriters are therefore all in reality (according to Western terminology) composer/songwriter/producer/musical director in all of the contexts that they appear in.

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

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

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

Nguyen Quoc Trung and Niels Lan Doky have together taken the initiative to gather an all-star team of the absolute best and most popular musicians and vocalists of today’s Vietnam. The project has been given the Vietnamese name «VONG NGUYET» which in English means «WISHING UPON THE MOON». VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (VIETNAM)

THE PROJECT:

The point of departure is a musical concept that fuses traditional Vietnamese m u s i c w i t h m o d e r n c o n t e m p o r a r y p o p ( o f t h e creative/progressive/sophisticated kind).

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

Occasionally, this blend, very rich in nuances, almost acquires a futuristic character. But only for outside listeners: Because Vietnam is today, on all levels, a country in ultra-fast growth, and the blend of new and old is therefore generally accepted by the Vietnamese as something natural and inevitable. 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 one single artists, as we are accustomed to in the West. Live concerts in Vietnam are almost always big events with many different vocalists, who all come to sing just a small handful of songs each. These concerts are often big events taking place at stadiums, big halls, etc. For the European performances by VONG NGUYET it is therefore possible to create a real authentic Vietnamese concert atmosphere, since not less than 5 different singers are a part of the program.

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 traditional Vietnamese Dan Bau (Monochord) which he will be playing extensively as well.

Added to this are 2 percussionist, Nguyen Ngoc Quan and Xavier Desandre-Navarre (Frenchman with strong ties to Vietnam) + a total of 5 additional musicians (2 male and 3 female) with a background in traditional Vietnamese music and who all play multiple different instruments: Ngo Thanh Hoai, Mai Thang, Le Xuan Dieu, Nguyen Hoang Anh and Nguyen Thanh Thuy. Three of them are vocalists (with a specialty in Vietnamese song tradition – contrary to Lam and Duong who are more modern pop based vocalists) and together they cover the entire spectrum of the essential traditional Vietnamese instruments (which besides sounding exciting, compelling and exotic, also look quite colorful and interesting on stage) meaning the following instruments: Dan Co, Dan Nguyet, Bamboo Flute, Vietnamese Trad. Oboe, Dan Bau, Dan Tranh. It should also be noted that the entire cast wears traditional Vietnamese clothes on stage. VONG NGUYET - WISHING UPON THE MOON- (VIETNAM)

THE MUSIC:

The music for VONG NGUYET is by Quoc Trung and other selected Vietnamese composers/songwriters (whom Quoc Trung and Niels Lan Doky have selected together). The program is created on the basis of a desire to show 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 the titles 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 virtually all of Vietnam's biggest stars without exception. He has also written music for a number of Asian feature films. He has the highest possible esteem on the Vietnamese music scene and his central position in the VONG NGUYET project has enabled the possibility to include Vietnam's very top artists. The unique thing about Quoc Trung is that he has the ability, within his music, to fuse traditional Vietnamese music with modern influences without loosing the Vietnamese identity. In his music he uses many traditional instruments (Dan Bau, Dan Tranh, Dan Co, etc.) which he blends with synthesizers, samplers and normal Western instruments.

THANH LAM: By far Vietnams biggest female singing star. She is a daughter of the legendary musician Thuân Yên and she has a very big, powerful and dark voice (unlike most other Asian female vocalists who are generally high pitched). There is about 2.5 million hits on Google when searching on her name, in spite 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 a real DIVA. She is regularly on tour abroad (especially in the USA and Canada where a combined 2 million Vietnamese immigrants live). The Prince Consort of Denmark, Prins Henrik, has attended a Thanh Lam/Niels Lan Doky duo concert at the Hanoi Opera and was greatly impressed and has become a fan of Thanh Lam, expressing his wish that she would come to Europe to explore her big potential for success there. Even though her point of departure is traditional Vietnamese music and modern international pop music, she has a profound impact on anyone who hears her, regardless of taste, genre and style, due to her very high impact personal 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 it comes to male singers. He has a very charismatic appearance and is a very strong, versatile and skilled singer. A beautiful nuanced voice. His CDs are all produced by Vietnam’s leading producers/composers (Quoc Trung, Le Minh Son…) which in itself, in Vietnam in particular, is a reference for quality. Female singers are always dominating the Vietnamese media, so the fact that Tung Duong has caught on on the same level as his female singing colleagues, 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 only instrument to only exist in Vietnam under and it is a single-stringed instrument which obtains a full register by creating a series of overtones which emerge wen the string is hit with a special bamboo stick. Hoai Anh is one the country’s most respected Dan Bau players and his is known as the best one when it comes to merging with other musical styles outside of the traditional/classic Vietnamese folk music within which the Dan Bau has its origin. 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 Danish mother and a Vietnamese father. He is the first Danish jazz musician since bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen to gain wide international renown and critical acclaim. He first emerged on the jazz scene in 1979 as the 15 year old protégé of American jazz legends Thad Jones and Ernie Wilkins. He moved to the USA in 1981 where he quickly came to prominence playing and recording with such jazz icons as Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Charlie Haden, Ray Brown, David Sanborn, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, Al Jarreau, John Scofield, the Brecker Brothers and many others. His extensive recording career, which began in 1986, includes 25 albums as a leader and countless albums as a producer or sideman for other artists. His recording work is represented on such prestigious jazz labels as Blue Note, Columbia, Verve and Milestone. He is one of the most influential jazz pianists in his native Denmark and is also among the most popular jazz artists in Japan where his albums have received multiple awards and reached top positions on the national bestseller charts. He has performed for many prominent world figures, including Pope Jean-Paul II and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. In June of 2003, Denmark’s minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen appointed Doky Member of the Music Committee under the Danish Arts Council. Niels moved to Paris, France in 1989 where he currently resides with his family. For more information please visit: www.nielslandoky.com