Last Thursday, you and I spent the whole day together while mom at work. I took you to Tyson Corner Center so you can play with your favorite train table at Barnes & Noble. We took 66 coming from DC and busted the exit to get to the mall. Four police cars on the left and five cars were stopped on the right. I tried to just roll along as if I hadn’t committed any violation. My seatbelt was on so I thought I was save. The cop stopped me and yelled because I didn’t see his hand signal. He peeped into the backseat and saw you enjoying your bottle and he smiled, “You can go.” Later on I have learned that 66 is exclusively for HOV and I had no idea. You saved my butt kiddo.

A brand new site with a brand new product line. After many months on the back burner, Simplexpression gets a complete renovation just in time for the fall.

For the site redesign, we replaced the simple white design with a muted tone. The new homepage displays all the thumbnails that will float according to the user’s screen resolution. We also revamped the codes to bring the site up to HTML5.

For our product, we took down all the old pieces and changed the way we photograph our new pieces. We abandoned the concept of naming our pieces after female jazz singers because choosing a name to attach to a piece has become quite a challenging task.

So head over and check out the new site. I hope you like our new approach and spread the love.

A bluesy tune from Jazzy Da Lam with gorgeous keyboard voicings. Her vocals sound matured and the scatting is pleasant. A walking double bass at the bottom would make the blues even more intoxicating.

Backing up by the Big Band Song Hong, saxophonist Quyen Van Minh and his friends gave Vietnamese ballads a jazz flavor. Mr. Quyen is obviously from the school of moldy figs. His approach to jazz is drawn from the swing era.

The Jazz With Vietnamese Lyric concert kicked off with Tran Tien’s “Thanh Pho Tre,” a catchy swing tune that is played straight on the melody. In fact, most tunes, including Anh Viet’s “Lo Chien Do,” Anh Viet’s “Ve Que” and Trong Dai’s “Ha Noi Dem Tro Gio,” are played in a very tight structure with only a chorus or a few bars of improvisation. Trumpet Hoang Xuan Vuong gave an achingly gorgeous reading of Trinh Cong Son’s “Mot Coi Di Ve,” but I wish he wasn’t married to Trinh’s melody and just pimped out sort of like what Coleman Hawkins did with “Body and Soul.” Hawkins assumed that everyone was familiar with the melody so he just improvised the entire tune without directly playing on the melody. I am sure everyone knows “Mot Coi Di Ve” by heart.

My biggest issue with the Big Band was way too many saxophones in the orchestra. A bunching of horns backing up a saxophone was very jarring. On Trinh Cong Son’s “Cat Bui,” Mr. Quyen stripped out the rhythm section and with only the saxes accompanying him, he turned the ballad into a funeral ode that was a fitting tribute to the great late Trinh Cong Son. The only time that the sax section worked was on Nguyen Cuong’s “H’zen Len Ray,” in which the saxes created a beautiful call-and-response effect with the trumpet.

One of my personal favorites was the piano-saxophone duet of Trinh Cong Son’s “Phoi Pha.” Accompanied by Dang Khang Nhi’s jazz-classical piano, Mr. Quyen played a soulful ballad with his own emotional solo. As beautiful as the song was, I couldn’t get over the erroneous introduction he made before he started to play. Mr. Quyen pointed out that jazz was born from black people, but jazz has to be combined with white’s wisdom to create jazz today. Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and especially Miles Davis would roll over their grave if they heard his statement.

Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington’s Clawing at the Limits of Cool draws an enlightening comparison between the musical innovation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. From their different upbringing to their fruitful collaboration to their opposite development, the authors illustrate the love, connection, respect and influence between “the Prince of Darkness and the Bearer of Light, each occupying an opposing end of our spiritual and/or iconographic continuum.”

In my review of Trinh Hoang Hai’s previous release, Bien Hat, I mused on his vibrato: “[H]e sings like a man in constipation trying to push and pull his way through.” Mr. Trinh took my criticism and put it to work on his new Trinh Cong Son songbook, Bien Oi. The result is much more pleasurable even though he hasn’t abandoned the technique entirely.

The album starts off with “Ru Doi Di Nhe” in which Mr. Trinh accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar. Right off the opening notes, he tries to control his vibrato, but like he has admitted, “I found to be hard to stray away from my poor habit.” On “Mot Coi Di Ve,” one can hear that he worries too much about techniques. He begins with “Bao nhieu nam roi con mai ra di” and without a pause he picks up “Di dau loanh quanh cho doi moi met.” Beside Tuan Ngoc, not too many Vietnamese singers could pull that off. He doesn’t need to though. He just needs to take his time and rest as long as he pleases because the empty space is as important as the singing notes. After all, Trinh Cong Son’s music encourages singers and listeners to reach deep inside his lyricism. On the Zen-like “Toi Dang Lang Nghe” for example, Mr. Trinh should slow down his phrasing, focus on the words, listen to his surroundings in order to feel the stillness of life.

I am in no way of indicating that Mr. Trinh doesn’t soak up Trinh Cong Son’s lyrics. In fact, it is quite the opposite and he should have use his experience toward his advantage. “Xin Tra No Nguoi” and “Cat Bui” are the two tracks that he means the words he sings. Unlike Tuan Ngoc’s above-octave version of “Xin Tra No Nguoi,” Mr. Trinh stays in his comfortable range and just lets his throaty voice reveal the emotional depth. The texture in his voice and the effortlessness in his delivery bring out the fate in “Cat Bui.”

Except for the opening track, Dang Khoa is responsible for the arrangements. On the title track he combines Vietnamese instruments with semi-classical orchestration, but not too effective. Other than some nice bluesy notes on “Mot Coi Di Ve,” but nothing stands out. The new age vibe doesn’t blend too well with “Loi Buon Thanh.” Trinh Cong Son’s compositions are best kept simple and intimate.

Just launched a new web site for one of my longest clients: The Lancaster Foundation for Educational Enrichment. I designed the original site eight years ago and have been maintaining it since. The new executive director wanted a brand new site that is clean, simple and attractive. So I worked with her and her team to rebuilt the site from scratch. The new site is marked up using HTML5 and the content has been rewritten.

Many thanks to the three visitors who took advantage of Amazon’s Fall Blowout Sale to support Visualgui.com.

Come on, Mr. Dam! I beg you to please give the old tunes a break. You’re sacrilegiously killing them. Your latest release Nhung Bai Ca Khong Quen is a double-disc full of fuck-up covers backing up by cheap productions.

You simply destroy “Hue, Tinh Yeu Cua Toi” with your fake-ass Hue’s accent. Bao Yen should kick your balls with her high heels for murdering her gorgeous “Chieu Ha Vang.” With all the money you have been making, you should spare some for the arrangement instead of wasting them on all that brand name clothes that make you look even more ridiculous. Most of the slow ballads are driven by programmed drums and irritating smooth saxophone lines. The mid-tempo production on “Loi To Tinh Mua Xua” is even worse. It’s the laziest groove I have heard.

Come to think of it, you simply don’t have an ear for beats. Your productions have been the same in all of your albums. The timeless tunes are indeed unforgettable, but your versions are immediately forgettable.

You’ve got mail. From your sweet new toddler teacher, Ms. Ester:

Hello.

Just wanted to know how Dao is doing.
We missed him very much during the day, he is really adorable
Hope he gets better soon.
Send him my love
Have a great evening
Ester

What were you doing yesterday? You had a bit of breakfast at Panera Bread and then you and mom took me to work. After that you spent the beautiful day with mommy roaming free around the Monument. I joined you for lunch before you headed home and slept in the car. Mom and you came back to pick me up so I didn’t have to be jammed into the train ride.

Isn’t it great to hang out with mommy all day? But then again, you get to learn and interact with others while you’re at school. You’re very popular at the school and everyone knows that you scream the loudest in the morning for about five minutes, but the become one of the sweetest boys for the rest of the day who wave, dance and blow kisses to everyone. Thanks for being such a awesome kid.