Jazz has always been about collaboration. Even if the musicians have never played with each other before, they have to work together as a team to bring out the beauty and the liveliness of jazz. The most challenging aspect of jazz collaboration is not how well each individual play, but how well he plays with his partners despite stylistic differences. How did Ella Fitzgerald’s girlish voice and Louis Armstrong’s gruff voice worked out so marvelously? How did Thelonious Monk’s choppy piano style flow with John Coltrane’s fluid saxophone? How did Chick Corea’s virtuosic piano meet Bela Fleck’s virtuosic banjo? Here is a list of 20 collaborative albums I have enjoyed enormously. The albums are listed in alphabetical order instead of from top to bottom. I cannot put a ranking to these works because it would be like comparing apple to orange:

At Basin Street (Clifford Brown & Max Roach)
The Avant-Garde (John Coltrane & Don Cherry)
Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (Ben Webster & Oscar Peterson)
Corea/Hancock (Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock)
Ella and Louis (Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong)
The Enchantment (Chick Corea & Bela Fleck)
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (Duke Ellington & Count Basie)
Getz Gilberto (Stan Getz & João Gilberto)
Immortal Concerts New York City, Birdland Club. 1954 (Art Blakey & Clifford Brown)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)
The Complete Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington Sessions (Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington)
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson)
Metheny Mehldau Quartet (Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau)
Side by Side (Itzhak Perlman & Oscar Peterson)
Sketches of Spain (Miles Davis & Gil Evans)
Skol (Oscar Peterson & Stephane Grapelli)
Somethin’ Else (Cannonball Adderley & Miles Davis)
Sonny Meets Hawk! (Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane)
Two Men with the Blues (Wille Nelson & Wynton Marsalis)

Bo Suu Tap 09 is a collection of standards covered by journalist-turned-singer Khoi Minh. Although he has a masculine, harmless voice, he lacks the swag, range and interpretive imagination to make the timeless tunes his own. His rendition of Trinh Cong Son’s “Chieu Mot Minh Qua Pho” is a disastrous, particularly when he tries to give it a jazzy feel. On the duet of Thanh Tung’s “Em va Toi,” Ha Tran smokes his ass like a piece of dried steak with her luscious vocals. Even Do Bao’s and Cuong Nguyen’s productions couldn’t supply wind to his deserted flow. Dude, don’t quit your day job.

The 23-year-old, Borneo-born Zee Avi possesses a sultry, smoky voice that is a reminiscent of Norah Jones. If you think Jones sounds sleepy, Avi sounds even sleepier. On her self-titled debut, she sings herself to slumberland with incredibly banal lyrics: “My phone was on silent / I was at the gym.” Accompanied by a drowsy acoustic picking guitar, “Slow Hands” and “No Christmas for Me” are perfect for insomnolence.

On the new release, Crime Pays, Cam’Ron tries to remake Purple Haze
without the help of the super producers. He uses the same formulas: lazy lyricism, misogynistic masculinity and pitiful punchlines. His wacky wordplays are ranging from hilarious (“And they say I’m a son of bitch / Why? Cause I’ll be with your son and your bitch”) to just downright silly (“I’m on a Yamaha / Laughing like hahaha”). Although Crime Pays is nowhere near the classic Purple Haze, Cam’s impeccable flow proves that he is still the finest laziest rapper.

Thanh Lam’s beyond-maudlin singing is inescapable. Her newest acoustic jazz release has only eight tracks, yet it is so damn painful to get through. On Vu Quang Trung’s “Anh Yeu Em,” her moaning and groaning are just unbearable. The way she drags and stresses every word on Duc Huy’s “Mua Dong Sap Den” is hair-raising. Let’s be clear that making some horny noises is not scatting. As much as I like to hear Thanh Lam experimenting jazz, she just doesn’t have the chops for it. The more she tries; the more dreadful she sounds. It might be true that jazz is not in our blood.

“I was born with a dick in my brain / Fucked in the head / My stepfather said that I sucked in the bed / ‘Til one night he snuck in and said / We’re going out back, I want my dick sucked in the shed,” Eminem rhymes on “Insane.” The dark, disturbing track about child raping off his new release, Relapse, attests that the lyrical monster is back after five years on hiatus.

What had he been doing during those time? After his disappointed Encore, Em spent four years between overdosing and going in and out of rehab. Drug is in his blood and he blames his mom for it: “Valium was in everything food that I ate / The water that I drank fucking peas on my plate / She sprinkled just enough of it the seas in my steak / So everyday I have at least three stomach aches.” Only last year that he returned to rap instead of drug to get high.

Although Em has been away for quite a bit, he proves to be at the top of his game. He never delivers the same way twice and Dr. Dre’s minimal grooves allow him to push his flows and concentrate on his lyrical wit. Still, he wastes way too much rhymes going after celebrities: Mariah Carey on “Bagpipes From Baghdad,” Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears on “Same Song & Dance” and a whole bunch of others on “We Made You.” But then again, a wicked cut like “Underground” testifies that Mr. Mathers still matters. Em is at his best when he spits his anguish and personal experience.

Vuong Dung’s debut, Trai Cam Mat Troi, was awesome, but her new follow-up Dzung is just awful. Whereas the first was a clever concept, the second is all over the place. She ditched her contemporary folks signature for soft, electric pop. Throughout the album she either sounds like Thanh Lam or Ngoc Khue. The album-closer “Son” (an upbeat folk tune written by Duc Nghia) is the only track that she actually sounds like Vuong Dung. It’s a damn shame to see a stallion going down in the pop race.

Inspired by the critical praises on her recording of Trinh Cong Son’s “Con Tuoi Nao Cho Em,” a simple rendition accompanied by an acoustic picking guitar, Hien Thuc releases Portrait 17, an entire Trinh songbook. Although she is wise enough to pick his less well-known repertoire, she is not smartening up enough to stick with simplicity.

The glossy productions take away the essence of Trinh’s lyricism. The new age vibe on “Chieu Tren Que Huong Toi” is a proof. The electric groove replaces the image of homeland (que huong) with some fantasy planet. Along with the slick r & b beat and Kenny G-style saxophone, her emotionless vocals put “Ve Trong Suoi Nguon” into a lazy afternoon. On the mid-tempo “Niu Tay Nghin Trung,” Tung Duong damn near pushes her off the track.

The turning point of the album is “Cuoi Cung Cho Mot Tinh Yeu” where she returns to acoustic arrangement. The classical-orchestrated “Muon Trung Bien Khoi” would have been exceptional if she could control her breath and eliminated the snoozing sax. The original version of “Con Tuoi Nao Cho Em” is also included as a bonus track. It’s an honest effort, but it is also apparent that Hien Thuc lacks the experience to take Trinh’s music to its fullest. Portrait 17 proves that point.

Asia’s latest DVD, Nhat Truong, Tran Thien Thanh 2, depresses the living hell out of me. I can’t get my mind off the image of Bang Tam with her forehead busted open lying in the hospital bed dying while bombs exploding in the background. The entire scene was so disturbing that I wish I didn’t get to it. In fact, I wish I didn’t watch the entire video at all. Now I can’t help feeling deeply sorry for our Vietnamese music.

She is like a cow being trapped in the box allowing Asia and other productions to milk every last drop out of her and preventing her from growing. When was the last time a new, original Vietnamese song was introduced in these videos? Tran Thien Thanh had quite a number of popular tunes and most of them were written in Borolo. Asia didn’t even bother to give them a new arrangement. Sitting through an entire Borolo rhythm with occasional upbeat is quite torturing.

Then again, we can’t really point the figure at these productions. As long as they could sell out their concerts and videos, why not repeating the concept? We need to step up our game before the productions could do their part. It’s all about supplies and demands. Save our music and give her a chance to grow.

With a deep, rich tenor voice and a classy taste, Thuy Vu recorded some of the most romantic ballads on his debut Thang Sau Troi Mua. In fact, my wife and I used his sensational rendition of Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Niem Khuc Cuoi” as a theme song for our wedding. Thang Sau Troi Mua is one of the albums that never grow out of me. I can just come back to it from time to time and still enjoy it.

In his long-waited, second follow-up, Tinh Khuc Thang Sau, Thuy Vu continues into the romantic path, but with a subtle touch of jazz. Dinh Hung and Pham Dinh Chuong’s “Mong Duoi Hoa” gets a bossa nova cover and his lust, cello-like baritone gets me every time. I am not ashamed to confess that I am totally gay for his bluesy take on Tran Thien Thanh’s “Nguoi Yeu Toi Khoc.” He also had done a great job of chucking the schmaltz out of “Lau Dai Tinh Ai” (from Tran Thien Thanh as well). The mid-tempo, funk groove adds a new flavor to the song.

The tempo for Y Van’s “Ao Anh” is a bit too fast. The brushwork behind his bass tone would have created a much better result. The somewhat disappointed track is Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Rieng Mot Goc Troi.” I was not looking for a better than a Tuan Ngoc version, but something completely different. Vocally, they are at the other end of the spectrum, which is good, but the saxophone killed it. Instead of accommodating the voice, the sax fights against it.

Like Thang Sau Troi Mua, Tinh Khuc Thang Sau (he must love June or something) shows Thuy Vu’s passion and admiration for the timeless ballads. He eases back, focuses on the lyrics and lets the sublime arrangements from Dinh Bao do the revitalization.