No Mommy No Cry

Taking you to school each the morning has been quite a pleasure experience. You push the buttons to open the doors. You swipe my card to check us in. You smile at the guard and the front desk lady. You greet Ms Tam, your wonderful Vietnamese teacher when she says, “Hi con!” You come to her and blow me kisses goodbye.

Yesterday, mommy took you in because I had to carry your box of diaper along with your lunch and milk. The result was that you cried and hung on to her. You didn’t want to let go. I took you to class today and again no crying. Mommy and I were joking in the car saying that kids don’t lie and you sure show who you love more. Your mom is very proud and touched by your affection for her.

Your school will be closed again tomorrow and Friday. I will take a vacation day tomorrow to be with you and I am looking forward to it. We should do something fun. Let’s hit the zoo. What do you think? Can you say “zoo”?

Gleeking Britney

Lea Michele as Rachel brought back Britney’s mega “Baby One More Time” and the different was that Lea’s vocals were much more powerful. The star of the Britney episode, however, goes to Heather Morris as Brittany. Her lines were spot on:

“I don’t brush my teeth. I rinse my mouth out with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist.”

“This room looks like the one on that spaceship where I got probed.”

“Please don’t pull all my teeth. When I smile I’ll look like an adult baby but with boobs.”

If you missed last night’s show, watch it on Hulu.

The Tutu Sound

Miles Davis’s startling trumpet on “Tutu” burnt into my brain the first time I heard it. With electric bassist Marcus Miller supplying the machine groove, Tutu marks the rebirth of the muted, mysterious and melancholy Miles.

40th Annual Festival of the Leaves

Simplexpression will be participating in the Warren Heritiage Society’s 40th Annual Festival of Leaves: “The Festival takes place in historic downtown Front Royal, Virginia on Chester and Main Streets. Come enjoy Front Royal at its best. Arts and crafts abound in the heart of our historic district. Bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, big band, and choir music represent some of the musical entertainment. Other entertainment includes reenactments and short plays.”

When
Saturday, October 9, 2010
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Where
Warren Heritage Society
101 Chester Street
Front Royal, VA 22630

Admission is free. For schedule of events, visit Annual Festival of the Leaves web site. Come enjoy the Festival and drop by our booth to say hi.

Le Quyen’s Acoustic Performance

Le Quyen gives a live performance of her pop hit, “Neu Nhu Ngay Do,” at a radio station. Quite awesome!

You Saved Me

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.

Simplexpression Relaunched

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.

Autumn Blues

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.

Quyen Van Minh and the Big Band – Jazz With Vietnamese Lyric

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.

Clawing at the Limits of Cool

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.”

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