If Giant Steps is too fast for you to follow and A Love Supreme is too much for you to take, Lush Life maybe the right Coltrane’s album for you. Beside a virtuoso, Trane was also a balladeer. He could play standards exceptionally well. The melodic lines on “Like Someone In Love” are so damn gorgeous that Trane performed as if he was truly in love, and he could pull it off even without the support of the piano’s harmony since Red Garland didn’t show up for the recording. If I were allowed but one Coltrane to share with my lady, Lush Life would be it. “I Love You” could sound like a banal romantic ballad, but not in a Latin vibe.

Not too long ago, Ha Tran made the following audacious statement: “Nhạc jazz VN tới nay thường là ‘râu ông nọ cắm cằm bà kia’ hoặc đu đưa cho có vẻ jazz một tí.” Now she is contributing a hot-tub, smooth bossa nova number on Tran Viet Tan’s new record, Biet. Despite her contradictory, I find her singing on the Latin-flavored “Vet Chan” way better than the electric shit she has done. She knows how to work the sensual lithe in her flow against the faintly syncopated arrangement. Elsewhere, she gives “Me Ganh Nuoc” a heart-lifting performance with such effortless control. And she pulls it off with just a simple accompaniment of piano and violin.

Beside Ha Tran, Biet features two other vocalists, Thanh Lam and Tung Duong, yet they couldn’t hold up to Ha Tran. Yes, even Thanh Lam too. Unlike Ha Tran, her flow is stilted on the Latin groove of “Dong Song.” She does not have the playfulness to ride the mid-tempo beat. The worse part is that Thanh Lam uses her vibrato all over the place, to the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. Doctor Tan should have subscribed her some chill pills before she stepped into the booth. Tung Dung also seems to be limiting his range and recycling the same delivery lately. The versatile Tung Dung is hidden in Chay Tron.

As for songwriter/doctor Tran Viet Tan, I don’t know if he is a good doctor or not since I’ve never paid his office a visit. I do know for sure, however, is his passion for music. He knows how to make songs for his patients. Biet is a perfect album to be played in his waiting room. The first track would calm them down. The second track would ease their pain. The third track would anesthetize them until the time their name is called. The doc is in.

I forgive you for what you haven’t done for me. After all, I wouldn’t be here without you. Still got mad love for you, Papa!

Who else but the originator Jay-Z. “Nigga What Nigga Who” showcases his ferocious flow. Still love that shit!

Jin is rooting for the Democratic presidential candidate with his “Open Letter to Obama.” The hook is kind of wack.

I was in Las Vegas’s Barnes & Noble looking for a book to kill my flight time back to New York. I encountered David Sedaris’s Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim on a bargain table and decided immediately it was the book to accompany me after reading the following passage:

Lauren was Walt’s sister, who was born prematurely and lived for less than two days. This had happened before the Winterses moved onto our street, but it wasn’t any kind of secret, and you weren’t suppose to flinch upon hearing the girl’s name. The baby had died too soon to pose for photographs, but still she was regarded as a full-fledged member of the family. She had a Christmas stocking the size of a mitten, and they even threw her annual birthday party, a fact that my mother found especially creepy. “Let’s hope she don’t invite us,” she said. “I mean, Jesus, how do you shop for a dead baby.”

Because of his articulate writing, he could make his dark humors lid up. With a collection of 27 essays, Sadaris takes us into the eccentric stories of his family. The book sure helped me get through the three-hour delay from Chicago to New York. This is definitely a perfect traveling read.

Yes, I still am in my Vegas state of mind, especially when listening to Ray Charles sings, “I sat there with two tens / I thought I’d have some fun / The dealer hit sixteen with a five / Just enough to make twenty one.” Fortunately, I was not the unlucky guy. In fact, I was having fun at the last Pai Gow game, which last until three in the morning.

There were a female dealer who was Chinese and hardly spoke any English, a Korean guy on her right, a hot American grandma (think The 40 Year Old Virgin) from Texas, a crazy Filipino who is a local cab driver, and me. The cab driver always played two hands when he was asked to take over the extra hand. His claim was that he has two wives to support. Then he was telling us his work jokes. One time he picked up three senior women who were in thier 60s from the airport to Golden Nugget. They asked him where is the best place to stay in LV and he told them there’s a place right next to the Nugget. They asked him if that place has senior citizens discount. He told them they are free. They were very excited until he pointed out the Detention Center. One of the ladies hit his head with a magazine. We were too busy laughing and listening to his story that we weren’t pay attention to the game. The dealer didn’t quite understand what we are musing about so she made us played our hands.

Finally we get to hear Nguyen Hong Nhung speaks out about her scandals in the past. Just when I thought she doesn’t seem to be an airhead after all, she comes off criticizing the music in Viet Nam as “cheap” while her lastest two albums (Dau Co Loi Lam and Di Vang Cuoc Tinh) are sprinkled with the “cheap” tunes she was talking about.

Watch part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Viva Vision: The biggest big screen on the planet!
Piano solo rendition of “Love Story” (I listened to this guy all night)

Just noticed the new Apple site. The navigation has been trimmed to down a simple set and the Spotlight search is very slick.