my new jam

trinh cong son, photo courtesy of saigonline.com

though i've heard the name many times, i've only recently discovered the music of trinh cong son (1939-2001), musician, pacifist, and vina-star second only to uncle hô. a fellow VASI student is a big fan, and she played some for me on her computer the other night... now i'm hooked. calling him the vina-dylan, as many have after joan baez, is misleading i think. his music aches more than dylan's does, but this could be khanh ly's doing - she sang trinh cong son's songs for years, beginning in the 60s, and helped make his music the national treasure it is today.

khanh ly and trinh cong son, photo courtesy of photobucket.com

unfortunately, you can hardly find the original recordings here in viet nam anymore. you can, however, find plenty of the re-released synthesizer-sax-chime-easy-listening versions, for which i blame doi moi, VN's period of economic renovation that took hold in the 80s (they opened the door a crack and the first thing they embraced from the western world was yanni??). it's awfully depressing, what bad vina-elevator music would sound like (if it existed - elevators here are still blissfully silent if only barely ventilated!).

i have managed to find an online source called the vietnam music database, where you can listen to every khanh ly recording of trinh cong son's music and put together a CD that they will burn and send to your house. so if all else fails here, i'll be putting my mega-collection together this fall (sign up now if you want one for christmas!)

this is not my favorite tune, but it's the best one i could find on youtube: ru ta ngam ngui.

enjoy.