Bassist Christian McBride is still at his Prime. McBride charges right off the opening “Head Bedlam” with his New Jawn—trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist & bass clarinetist Marcus Strickland, and drummer Nasheet Waits. “Obsequious” harks back to the hard-pop era with Evans and Strickland improvising like Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins. My personal favorite has to be “The Lurkers.” It’s a dark beauty with McBride bows broodingly on his bass. The whole album is a masterpiece with four exceptional players joined together.

My wife discovered Nguyễn Thùy Linh’s The Beatles In Jazz and passed it on to me. If I didn’t read her name, I wouldn’t have known that she’s Vietnamese. Her English is flawless and her voice is sultry. Her interpretation of The Beatles is pop-jazz at best. “All My Love” gets a straight-swing rhythm. “And I Love Her” gets a Latin flavor. “Imagine” gets a reggae groove. With “Yesterday” she pronounces through for though: “Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.” It is still an enjoyable album nevertheless.

Cecile McLorin Salvant is a rare jazz singer who has the the vocals and the chops. What makes Salvant a fascinating artist, however, has been her brilliant song choices—particularly her attention to the lyrics. With Mélusine, I just have to enjoy the music and the singing since the entire album is in French, with the exception for half of the title track in English. Since French is Salvant’s first language, her phrasings and annunciations are just sensational. I liked the up-tempo songs like “Il m’a vue nue” and “Doudou” as well as the mysterious slow-burning tracks like “Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent?” and “Petite musique terrienne.” Yet I loved the weirder sounds like “Wedo” and “D’un feu secret.” I enjoyed this album immensely.

French Trumpeter Erik Truffaz obviously spends lot of time studying Miles Davis. In his latest release, Rollin’, Truffaz channels Davis’s fusion as well as film scores. With mysterious synthesizer and distorted electric guitar backing him up, Truffaz plays like Miles on Bitches Brew, particularly on “Route de nuit” and “Thème de Fantômas.” “Quel temps fait-il à Paris” harks back to Davis’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud. Sandrine Bonnaire’s reading in French sounds so damn sexy. I enjoyed this short album.

I have been so out of touch with hip-hop. I don’t know any new or young rappers. Since I have a subscription to Amazon Music, I wanted to hear new hip-hop albums. NF’s Hope was on top of the list. I had no idea who NF was so I gave him a try. On the opening title track, he sounded white and a bit angry at the industry. He sang a bit and he had the flow. His lyrics were decent and I noticed that he didn’t use any curse words. In the second track, “Motto,” I heard him mentioning God. Then he talked more about God in the song he wrote about his deceased “Mama.” I realized I was listening to a Christian rap album. I got turned off.

I recently discovered Yaeji’s With a Hammer through Amazon Music. Yaeji has saccharine vocals. Her phrasings are both exotic and eccentric trading lines between English and Korean. The productions are the elements that pulled me in. I am hooked on the electronic dance, jungle beats. With a Hammer is an impressive debut with consistent tracks throughout the album. I enjoyed it immensely.

Để đánh dấu 60 năm ca hát của nam ca sĩ Elvis Phương qua album này thì thật là đáng tiếc. 13 ca khúc và hai bonus tracks không thể nào đủ để đại diện cho khoảng đường dài trong nghệ thuật của anh. Qua 60 năm, chất giọng của anh vẫn khỏe mạnh. Cách hát và cách phát âm của anh vẫn không thay đổi nên nghe cũng có gì lạ tai. Những bài hòa âm không đạt lắm. Một cơ hội bị lỡ.

Giọng Hồng Nhung Đỗ tốt và những bài phối khí cũng chất lượng. Một album nhạc Trịnh hoàn hảo. Thế nhưng lại nghe không thấm thía. Chắc có lẽ tôi đã nghe quá nhiều album Trịnh Công Sơn và mỗi lần nghe một sản phẩm mới tôi khao khát được nghe những gì khác lạ hơn. Chứ cứ hát đi hát lại nhạc Trịnh như xưa nay thì cũng không có sự thay đổi gì. Album này hay nhưng thiếu đặc điểm riêng.

Phương Phương Thảo hát nhạc trữ tình không theo giai điệu bolero mà theo phong cách thính phòng. Với tiếng đàn guitar của nhạc sĩ Vĩnh Tâm và nhạc sĩ Hoàng Vũ Anh Tuấn, Phương Phương Thảo thổi làng gió nhẹ nhàng và ngọt ngào vào những tình khúc để đời của nhạc sĩ Lam Phương như “Thành phố buồn”, “Giọt lệ sầu”, “Phút cuối”, và “Chờ người”. Tuy Phương Phương Thảo trình bài những ca khúc của các nhạc sĩ khác cũng rất tới, nhưng ước gì cô dành trọn vẹn album acoustic này cho cố nhạc sĩ Lam Phương với những ca khúc như “Duyên kiếp”, “Tình bơ vơ”, “Một mình”, “Cỏ úa”, và “Đường về quê hương”.

Hôm qua trên đường lái xe từ tiểu bang Vermont đầy băng tuyết về lại thủ đô Hoa Thịnh Đốn ấm áp, tôi nghe Lệ xa người mà lòng hướng về quê hương. Dù bất cứ nơi nào trên thế giới, nghe tình khúc của cố nhạc sĩ Lam Phương là không thể nào không cảm nhận được Việt Nam vì nhạc của ông từ lời ca đến giai điệu đến tâm hồn luôn đậm nét Việt Nam.

In 2008, I began collecting Vietnamese songs arranged in jazzy styles for my own listening pleasure. Then I lost motivation and just stopped. As the years went on, more Vietnamese songs produced with jazz flavors. I recently picked it up where I left off.

I am curating 127 songs and I would like to share my collection with anyone who would be interested in listening to Vietjazz. I want to create a simple music app or a webpage that would stream these songs randomly. It would be great for long road trips. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to create a simple music app. I could create a webpage, but the bandwidth to host these songs will put a hole in my pocket.

I am thinking of just to create a simple page with all the songs information listed, but I don’t know if that’s useful or not. Nevertheless, I spent a couple hours this morning typing up all the song titles, songwriters, and singers. I even put in the styles for each song. I did all of this on my Apple Music App. Then I uploaded to my YouTube Music account. YouTube Music allows me to share the playlist, but listeners would need a YouTube Music account to access it. If you like to check out the playlist, sign up a free YouTube Music account.

I will continue to add more songs in the future and I will continue to think about making the free streaming music app. It would definitely be a good learning experience. If you have any suggestion about making the app, hit me up. For now, you can enjoy Donny Truong Presents Vietjazz on YouTube Music.