Chay Tron – A Story

My patience is running out on Tung Duong. After his luminous Chay Tron debuted, he’s on the hideout for real. With the title track and “Trang Khat,” he got me so excited about the Vietnamese jazz scene. His thick, soulful voice combined with his potential to scat like a trumpet gave me so much hope, but he has nothing to follow up with for more than two years. Don’t sleep on me, man.

Since I already gave this album my 2 cents, let’s look at it in a different perspective—the art of crafting an album. As much as I adore the little iPod Shuffle, I gave it to my sister who could use it for exercise routine because I am not the type that listen to all the hits or only my favorites. I like to spend time with an entire CD, especially with hip-hop joints, to get a complete experience of what the artist is trying to communicate. Most of the time, Vietnamese singers just throw in a bunch of songs together to make an album. Rarely do they think about how an album should start or end, but Chay Tron is not the case. I am not sure if Le Minh Son did it consciously or unconsciously, but the songs fall together so perfect that the sequence created an epic. In the course of endless listening, I have noted some fluff on how the album is like a little fancy tale. It could be just my own imagination, but what the heck. Imagination is all I have, and it has been running pretty wild lately. So read on at my own peril.

Yeu

He’s wandering by himself searching for her in his dream. She is untouchable.

Chay Tron

He’s reminiscing the good old days when they still played hide and seek. She was his first sweet love.

Trang Khuyet

But the painful part comes when he reflects on their quarrels. Mad at him, she threw the moon back to the sky.

Lua Mat Em

When she was mad, he could see the fire in her eyes. She was burning like hell.

Trang Khat

Although he could see the flame in her complexions, she was still as beautiful as the moon and river.

Den Ben Anh Diu Dang

And when she came to him, she brought him joy and happiness.

Oi Que Toi

Who is she? It turns out that he’s referring to her as his homeland all these time.