Lâu rồi không nghe rock Việt. Đêm nay tình cờ bắt gặp Mùa hè bất tận, album mới của nhóm Rosewood. Sẵn còn nửa chai Aberlour A’bunadh nên làm vài shots lấy độ cồn 60.9% chiêm ngưỡng chất rock nặng ký và để nhớ đến một ông dượng tôi rất kính nể mà đã lâu không gặp. Ổng cũng mê rock Việt lắm.

Nhóm Rosewood đã thành lập được 19 năm với những thành viên: Vũ Nhật Linh (vocalist), Nguyễn Tuấn Vũ (lead guitarist), Trần Nam Thắng (bassist), Nguyễn Trung Kiên (drummer) và Ngô Hoàng Kiên (synthesizer). Tuy nhiên đây là lần đầu tiên tôi nghe nhạc của nhóm. Thì ra Rosewood không phải rock nặng ký hoặc punk rock mà là rock nhẹ, rock ballad, và alternative rock. Với chất giọng trầm ấm và truyền cảm của Vũ Nhật Linh, các ca khúc của nhóm dễ nghe.

Lời nhạc cũng nhẹ nhàng và êm dịu không quá não nề. Chẳng hạn như “Điều bỏ quên,” Vũ Nhật Linh hát như tâm sự: “Tôi… như đang tìm tôi… giữa đời / Rồi một mai… sẽ vẫn như bức tranh hôm nào, dù còn nhiều điều bỏ quên”. Ca khúc “Hồi ký một giấc mơ” cũng đầy tự sự: “Tôi như đang rong chơi, ở nơi của sự kiếm tìm / Nghe sao mong manh, giữa câm lặng / Không gian như nát tan, chỉ còn tôi…”

“Đêm không màu” có những lời đầy tâm trạng, “Nhiều lúc, muộn vẫn bước đi / Lạ lẫm, nhưng không thấy gì”, nhưng lại không có hồn, “Chợt nghĩ, điều gì mất đi / Hạnh phúc, ta đang có gì… / Nắng lên rồi, cơn mưa ngớt thôi / Cuộc sống, như đang rối bời”. Hoặc trong “Ảo ảnh”, Vũ Nhật Linh hát “Có lúc ta quay về, nắng tái tê tan vỡ ê chề / Ngày dài đơn côi, nhìn mặt trời lặng trôi…”

Ca từ bay bổng trên mây rất là nghệ sĩ nhưng không đi vào lòng người. Chắc cái gu nghe nhạc rock của cá nhân tôi cần có một chút blues, một chút psychedelic, hay một chút punk. Thiếu những chất đó thì rock hơi bị khô khan. Có uống whisky nặng độ cồn cũng không cảm nhận được. Album Mùa hè bất tận đối với tôi thì đẹp như hơi bị thiếu cái soul của rock.

I love the typographic treatment on the album cover. It’s the huge word Play in black spreading around the cover with small black text of the players’ name—Theo Croker and Sullivan Fortner—and orange text of their instrument—trumpet and piano.

Play kicks off with “A Prayer for Peace” as the duo sets off the hushed tone for their collaboration. Croker plays the trumpet with such clarity as if he’s singing while Fortner drops scintillating keys to respond to his partner.

“First Light” Croker holds long notes while Fortner plays short ostinatos behind him. It is so calm until Croker switches up with his screeching sound, but his tone is never out of control. “Midnight Bloom” is a short piece (1:24) on the album, but it showcases the two improvisational masters at play. They understand each other. They support each other. They completed each other’s thoughts.

This is what jazz is all about. It’s all on the spot. No practice. No written notes. No pressure. They just Play. So just kick back, relax, pour out some Cordon Bleu, and enjoy the conversations.

I usually don’t drink bourbon, but tonight I have to break out a bottle of Bardstown (Amrut) to marinate my soul into the blues. I haven’t listened to the good ole blues in a while and Kirk Fletcher’s eighth studio release, Keep On Pushing, fills that gap.

Right off the bat, Fletcher gets down with the 12-bar blues. With Ted Jarret’s “It’s Love Baby,” Fletcher sings the AAB form: “Honey my days and nights are lonely, I need your lovin’ every day / Honey my days and nights are lonely, I need your lovin’ every day / But I think about you baby, 24 hours of the day.”

In addition to his intoxicating vocals, Fletcher is a hell of a blues guitar player. Check out his breathtaking solo on Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole” or the deep-down blues on Percy Mayfield’s “Lost Love,” and his begging is so damn hard to resist: “Baby please, baby please come back to me / Baby please, Please come back to me / Because I am a prisoner / I need your love to set me free.”

What I love about the good ole blues is sometimes you can get some life lessons out of it. Al K. Smith gives sound advice in his “Think Twice Before You Speak.” Fletcher preaches: “The graveyard is full of people that talk too much / I know my time is coming but I’m in no rush / Many hearts have been broken because someone lied / My advice is let your conscience be your guide.”

Of course “Every Dog Has Its Day,” as Edward Bocage has penned it and Fletcher shares it: “My friends turn their back on me / When hard times come scratching at me / Hard times, hard times got me now / As Confucius say, every dog has its day.” What can you do about it except to “Keep On Pushing” as Fletcher reminds us, “Don’t get lost in the struggle, gotta live your live with ease / Don’t get lost in the struggle, gotta live your live with ease / That good lovin’ woman, she almost brought me to my knees.”

Good music needs no liquor, but bourbon and blues definitely lift up your spirit or drown you in it. Either way, I enjoy Keep On Pushing.

Fuck! Olivia Dean sounds like Amy Winehouse, especially after a few shots of Lagavulin (16). The smokiness in her timbre; the soulfulness in her delivery; particularly her outpouring emotion in “Let Alone the One You Love,” from her latest release, The Art of Loving. She begins the soul-jazz ballad with her own realization, “Thought I was done with this feeling / I really thought you could be him / Thought I was safe.” Then she reveals her disappointment, “You were the warmth that I needed / Like a breeze in the evening / And then you changed / You’re all the same.”

From the neo-soul production to her storytelling, Dean’s definitely channeling Winehouse in “Close Up.” In the second verse, she flows, “Now I’m more than a voice on the phonе / Now I’m here and we’re finally alone.” Then she pauses on the word “Why” in the next bar, “Why… do we feel so distant? / You’re… treating me like I’m one of the rest / I feel stupid for wearing that dress.” Her delivery sounds more dynamic between those pauses.

“So Easy (to Fall in Love)” is a romantic track with a bossa nova flavor. The lyrics are quite lovely: “There’s no need to hide if you’re into me / ’Cause I’m into you quite intimately” I like the way she phrases “intimately.” She continues, “And maybe one night could turn into three / Well, I’m down to see.”

The album has a few upbeat grooves including “Nice to Each Other,” “Man I Need,” and “Something Inbetween,” but the essence of The Art of Loving are the slow, heartrending tracks. The album closer, “I’ve Seen It All,” is just her voice accompanied by an acoustic strumming guitar. She leaves listeners with something to remember: “The more you look, the more you find / It’s all around you all the time / Catches your eye, you blink and then it’s gone.” She closes out with “Brings out the worst, brings out the best / I know it’s somewhere in my chest / I guess it’s been inside me all along.”

I don’t smoke, but I enjoy the smoke in Dean’s voice as well as the smoke in Lagavulin (16). Music and whisky have been my mechanisms for dealing with stress. I just need a moment to escape all the dramas in my life. As the album plays, I pour out some liquor and reminisce: Rest in peace Amy Winehouse.

I haven’t been keeping up with the rap game for a while. I just can’t understand the new mumble raps. I have been listening to G Herbo’s Lil Herb. I hadn’t heard of this guy before, but I could feel that he rhymed from his fucking heart.

Right off the opening track, “Every Night,” he wastes no time setting up his story: “Lay awake in bed, thinkin’ all night / Sometimes in my feelings, I was livin’ a hard life.” Over the rock guitar riff and pounding bass, he warns, “Pray to God that nobody brings me harm or don’t even start a fight / I control the crowd with my left arm, you know I’m armed, right.”

Not only does he sound so damn hungry on “Reason,” he also proves that he’s a vivid storyteller: “Bullets tap they head / I was fightin’ a fed case, but I did not go fed / Pay my lawyer bread, then went and tuck my kids in bed.” He rhymes on, “I’m still havin’ nightmares, I wake up seein’ red / Think back, if it weren’t for rap, where would I be instead? / Probably, probably jail, probably, probably dead, probably.”

“Blitz” kicks off with a gun-loading sound then raining bullets throughout the beat as Herb rips through striking details full of actions: “Blitzin’ with his fire, he can’t even hit back, watch his shit splat / Squeeze until it click-clack, fuck the talkin’, we don’t chit-chat / Bring it to your front door like it’s gift wrap / Fuckin” with my bro, we caught a dime at the kickback.” Likewise “Radar” is another action-packed storytelling verse, in which Herb sets off the scene: “You ever lived through a nightmare? / Looked death in the face, he might stare / Somebody try and kill you right there.”

At first, I assumed Herb is a new artist with an ole soul, but in “Win Again,” he reveals, “I’m grateful for my fans, I started rapping in 2010 / Got turnt, I went up ten, I’m tryin’ to run up ten again / I grew up gangsta, wanna be a businessman like 50 Cent / Got labels askin’ about my masters ’cause I got fifty percent.” He has been in the game for 15 years; therefore, he still has that old-school goodness in him. Lil Herb is a banging album filled with virtuosic flow and compelling storytelling.

I first wrote about Cécile McLorin Salvant back in 2013 when she released her debút album, WomanChild. Salvant has always been a singular jazz singer who reinvigorates old standards with humorous twists. Her lyrical choices have always been intriguing.

With her latest release, Oh Snap, she experiments with her own writing. Right off the opening track, “I am a volcano,” she explains over electronic pop production that she wants to be a river, but she’s volcano instead and the image she gives is fascinating: “I am a cyst, finally expressing, pressing out the pus / Red, black, fire, smoke and lust / Molten rock destroying everything.”

With “Anything but now,” she returns to post-bop singing with lyrics that many of us can relate: “I spend a lot of time thinking about doing things / Instead of doing them / I spend a lot of time thinking about saying things / Instead of saying them / Out loud, out loud, out loud.” She’s damn right we spend a lot of time ruminating instead of doing shit, yet her band swings like hell.

Over strumming guitar, she sings “Take a stone,” a folky flavor, with captivating lyrics such as: “Tomorrow morning, at the edge of a volcano / She’ll meet him with her arms open wide / His hands are broken, he used them to caress her / In places she could not begin to understand.” In my head, I am like, “WTF?”

On “What does blue mean to you?,” she swings the blues with more telling lyrics: “An emerald far in the distance / That we’ve been galloping to / Barefoot and bloody / Winded and tired and sweaty.”

With the title track, “Oh Snap,” she switches up with electronic new age, yet her lyrics remain hilarious: “Oh shit, I think you love me / I think I’ve shown you all of the cruel and nasty parts of me / But you still haven’t left, is it abject fidelity? / Or could it be that love is more than just fantasy to you?”

Over the 12 years since her debút, Salvant has gone a long way as an artist. She is willing to experiment and to step up her game. Let’s break out a bottle of Aberfeldy 21 and cheer for Oh Snap.

I had been revisiting 2pac’s catalog, particularly All Eyez On Me, in which he mentioned Thug Passion a few times. Last night, I was fiending for some Thug Passion myself. I had a bottle of Alizé Gold Passion in stock, but I didn’t have any Hennessy. I broke out a bottle of Cordon Bleu instead. One part Alizé and one part CB turned out to be a perfect mix, which was sweet and fruity, yet had a strong kick to it. 2pac used to say that a Thug Passion would guarantee to get “the dick hard and the pussy wet.” He was bullshitting. At my age, no alcohol could get me up; therefore, I just enjoyed the drink and listened to music.

I turned on Spotify and let it play whatever. A familiar song came on and I recognized the melody. It brought back the memories of hearing Nini, Hạ Vy, Vina Uyển Mi, and Quỳnh Hương lip-synced on one of Asia Entertainment’s videos. The tune was titled “The Model” and arranged in Asia’s chachacha signature style. Either my English was bad back then or their pronunciation was not clear, I didn’t understand what the fuck the ladies were singing. The version I listened to last night for the first time was perfectly clear. The female voice turned out to be Mélanie Pain. Accompanied by Olivier Libaux’s melodic guitar and Raphael Chassin’s crisp drums, Pain sings: “She’s a model and she’s looking good / I’d like to take her home, that’s understood / She plays hard to get, she smiles from time to time / It only takes a camera to change her mind.”

After that song, I had to look up the album so I could listen to the whole joint. All That Matters turned out to be Libaux’s final collaboration with Pain and Chassin. Unfortunately, Libaux passed away in 2021. Libaux has a cool vibe on the guitar, which complements Pain’s soft, sensual voice perfectly.

Their rendition of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is so damn cool that you wouldn’t have imagined the original was a rock tune by The Rolling Stones. This verse sounds intriguing coming from a female perspective: “When I’m watchin’ my TV / And a man comes on to tell me / How white my shirts could be / But he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke / The same cigarettes as me.”

“Rebel Yell” is another fascinating reinterpretation. They turned the Billy Idol rock tune into a mellow ballad. I must confess. I have not listened to Billy Idol before. This is the first time I heard of “Rebel Yell” through Pain and I thought she was talking about being gang-banged by the rebels: “With a rebel yell, ‘More, more, more / More, more, more.’” It was the Thug Passion that fucked up my mind. All kidding aside, I enjoyed All That Matters immensely.

I love music. Unfortunately, I don’t play any instruments. I can’t sing either. The only thing I can do is write about it. As of this writing, I have penned 1,308 pieces on music.

When I created my personal blog in 2003, I needed content. Music was one of the topics that I was passionate about since I listened to music all the time. As someone who spent most of his time on the web and making a living off the web, I had access to music.

One of my goals for starting my own blog was to hone my writing skills. I wanted to take on the challenge of writing something I didn’t know anything about. I reviewed music without any music training and without injecting myself into the albums. I wrote about the vocals, the productions, and the techniques. Each review would take me 2 to 3 hours to write. I had to do research to find the vocabulary to convey my thoughts.

Taking a jazz appreciation course at Vassar College helped a great deal. I learned to listen to the art of improvisations. I held that technicality as standards even though I also wrote about hip-hop and Vietnamese music, in addition to jazz. Vietnamese music was where my heart was and I was very critical of trendy records with unimaginative melody and cheap lyrics.

In 2015, after 11 years of writing about music, I got burned out and called it quit. The format took too much of my time to write, but then I didn’t really quit. I wrote less reviews and my pieces were shorter. Furthermore, I only wrote what I wanted to share. I wrote for myself. When I first started, I wanted to focus on the music, but now I am doing the opposite. I put myself into the reviews.

My music writing gets more personal than before. I use the albums as a starting point to inject my own personal life into them. As I am listening to an album, I start to write in my head. Once I listen to the album long enough, I can just sit down and finish it in less than an hour. I am enjoying it more this way.

If you would like to read my music writing, head over to my blog. That’s where I post all of my writings first before sharing them on social media platforms.

Đêm nay trời lạnh ngồi nghe tiếng hát của Trang. Trong, album thứ ba của cô, có ca khúc, “Tại sao phải say.” Qua giai điệu jazz say sưa, cô hát, “Đôi khi triết lý như là whiskey / Và những câu chuyện thật đời / Dù ta là hai người khác xa / Cần thêm một chút men thôi mà, phải không?” Vậy là phải lôi chay Aberlour A’bunadh ra lai rai tiếp.

Trang có tiếng hát nhẹ nhàng với cách phát âm rất dễ chịu. Cô tự viết nhạc và có máu jazz trong mình. “Làm bạn với em” là một bài swing tươi tắn với những lời ca êm dịu nhưng cảm xúc, “Vì tình yêu chẳng mãi như lúc đầu để chung con đường mai sau / Khi giấc mơ mỗi người tìm hai hướng ngược nhau / Để rồi ta bước tiếp theo tiếng gọi của thời gian / Chẳng còn tiếc nuối, xin hãy ghé đây và nghe em hát”. Cô chẳng những hát mà còn scat nữa. “Em chỉ nhìn thấy anh” được phối theo nhịp điệu bossa nova lả lơi. Ca từ thì cũng ướt át, “Ước gì giây phút này chợt đứng yên / Để bàn tay nắm / Từng lần chạm môi / Mãi ở đây thôi”.

“Cà phê và trà sen” là một ca khúc giản dị được hòa âm theo nhịp điệu waltz dịu dàng và lời ca cũng khá là mộc mạc: “Đừng uống cà phê lúc mới ngủ dậy / Đừng uống cà phê không thôi lại say”. Nếu “Cà phê và trà sen” viết cho buổi sáng thì “Cuộc đàm phán với nỗi đau” viết cho buổi tối. Ca khúc được phối khí và dàn dựng theo phong cách bán cổ điển. Được đệm với tiếng đàn dương cầm và dàn orchestra, cô hát với tất cả con tim, “Có lần tôi nắm tay của một nỗi đau / Khi nghe rằng thương yêu tôi trao chẳng đủ để giữ chân người / Và ta bước đi cùng những hố sâu / Loang bên lồng ngực trái.”

Album được khép lại với “Điều đẹp nhất về tình yêu” mang âm hưởng bán cổ điển. Giọng của cô bay bổng trên tiếng đàn dương cầm tao nhã và dàn dây nhã nhặn. Cô để lại trong tim người nghe hai câu cuối cùng: “Cứ yên giấc trong vòng tay anh khi bình minh lần cuối / Mình vẫn sẽ tìm nhau dù ở bất cứ dòng thời gian nào”.

Đây là một album đáng được trải nghiệm Trong nội tâm với vài ly whisky, như lời Trang hát: “Phải uống thật say để ta thành thật / Phải say để rũ bỏ hết vướng bận”.

I hadn’t heard of Niia before, but I was immediately onboard when I gave her newest album, V, a spin. Right off the opening track, which titled “fucking happy,” she sweeps me off my feet. With her sexy and smoky vocals, she tells it like it is: If you see me at El Coyote with your drink / Leave me alone / These days I’m fucking happy / I deserve this / Yeah I earned it.” The jazz vibe and the big-ass beat are as forceful as her warning. She continues, “And I don’t know how long this streak will last / So don’t fuck with me.”

Niia is not to be fucked with, but then she can fuck with your mind: “Oh just touch it baby / Feels so incredible / With you deep inside me / I just wanna melt ohh.” Backing up by the thumbing bass and driving drums in “Pianos and Great Danes,” she seduces in a depressing way, “I just need it / Kill my mind / That’s good like that / Baby we can do it right now.”

Niia got the blues as well, but in her own way. I love the distorted electric guitar on “Maria in Blue.” Niia addresses her ex-lover, “You could have been the answer / You could have been my god / But now you’re just a problem / Cause my life has to go on.” She breaks down, “Don’t cry for me / Don’t feel bad / Why’s it still so hard to choose what’s right for me?” Then comes the killer bars, “The world see only beauty and pride / What fucking a haul a crawl inside this endless mall.”

With Niia’s own touch of jazz combined with hip-hop beats and electric fusion, V is fucking fantastic. I am feeling it, especially with a few glasses of Macallan Rare Cask.