Discovering the history of jazz in Vietnam is not difficult. It starts and ends with saxophonist Quyen Van Minh. If you like your jazz hot, cool, or anything in between; if you like your nightclubs dim, smoky, and walled with neon beer signs, posters and pictures of jazz greats; if you like your women dreamy, slinky, wearing bright dresses fitted like snake-skins and men in silk suits or wearing tee shirts and berets; if you like the best mixed drinks in town and great food; then you must be in Vietnam - Minh's Jazz Club in Hanoi, to be exact. Or at least, you were. Minh has closed his club and is presently attempting to find a new home for his music somewhere in the city.
Minh, who opened his original club 13 years ago, has single-handedly brought jazz to Vietnam. In a nation where struggle has always been the norm, Minh's fight for musical freedom, for the right to express himself, came naturally from a people who believe strongly in the right to govern their own lives. Expressing those beliefs has taken time but the Vietnamese are not known to be quitters.
Vietnam has a long history of traditional music and instruments. Musicians studied music in its true (chan) and straight (phuong) form, without embellishment. After they learned the music exactly they often embellished it by adding what were called flowers (hoa) and leaves (la). Changing the music is often performed on fold songs. Changing any classical music is not allowed.
Minh has always been fascinated with music, the combination of structure and freedom, its lyrical qualities and the ability to transfer emotions to sounds. His mother bought him a clarinet when he was a child but she could not afford lessons or schooling. Minh taught himself to play and spent hours learning songs from the radio, both traditional Vietnamese and classical music. He seemed never to be without his clarinet and the music rattled constantly in his head. Yet, something was missing, a sound he knew was there but that he could not reach.
One day he happened upon a feint and distant station, the BBC. They were featuring a series on jazz. Minh instantly fell in love with the moving rhythms, the emotions pouring from the music. Benny Goodman, articulate and swinging, soon became a special favorite of his. This was the music he had been longing to play. His struggle against tradition was about to begin.
His father became the first obstacle to overcome. He forbade Minh from learning the new music and felt it to be a virus invading the traditional Vietnamese values. In a country where elders, especially fathers, are respected and obeyed, Minh refused. The music had been born into him and could not be removed. His father destroyed the radio. Undeterred, Minh found a family with a radio. "Times were tough then," he said. "There was little food but I managed to have some extra. In exchange for bread they let me listen to the BBC for two hours each night."
Because he liked the deeper melodic sound, the versatility, he bought a saxophone, an instrument completely foreign to Vietnam. "I loved Charlie Parker but oh, so quick and all those notes. More than I could handle at the time." Everything he heard came from the radio and it was difficult to remember the songs or to transcribe the solos.
He found some Russians and Czechs who owned several jazz cassette tapes. They let him borrow them so he could write down the music. He eventually bought a single tape and a tape recorder.
Just having the music was not the only problem to overcome. He had to find musicians willing to learn the music and to practice with him, not an easy task in a country where such foreign music was a mystery and frowned upon by the government and by society.
With hard work and determination, typical of Vietnamese people, he formed a successful jazz band. The music was slowly accepted as his reputation grew and musical barriers started to fall. He has since developed an international reputation and has performed throughout the world.
Minh was not satisfied with just playing American jazz. He has taken the music and molded it with traditional Vietnamese songs. What has emerged is a beautiful and elegant music unique to him. Songs like Giai Dieu Sapa, a love song for the women of Sapa usually played on the khen, a traditional Vietnamese instrument, and Mau Xuan Kinh Bac, are both beautifully meldodic. The melodies are rich, gorgeous, and exquisite.
Westerners often experience difficulties playing the songs because of the time singnatures. Most jazz in played in 4/4 time. Vietnamese often play in difficult times, even changing the times within the song.
Minh has been a tremendous international asset to Vietnam both as an ambassador and a musician. Because of him, many people are learning more about the music of Vietnam. Music has always been an international language and Minh speaks it well.
I am the author of "First a Torch" a new novel about the siege at Dien Bien Phu. I am also a former jazz musician who has played with such groups as Woody Herman and Mel Torme' Although no longer much of a player, I sometimes sit in at Minh's Jazz Club in Hanoi, Vietnam. Because there are practically no trumpet players in Vietnam the people do not know how one is supposed to sound so I get away with some pretty bad technique. I am presently an editor for "Vietnam Cultural Window" magazine in Hanoi and sometimes take people to interesting places in the country while working on assignments.
No comments:
Post a Comment