Nguyen

‘East meets West’ was the central theme in the life of Nesuhi Ertegün (1917-1989). He grew up as the son of the Turkish Ambassador in Washington, and Nesuhi himself was to become an ambassador too: one of the most important producers and advocates that jazz has ever had.

"Saiyuki", the Japanese name for the "Journey to the West", is a famous Chinese novel written in the XVIth century by Wu Cheng'en. Nguyên Lê chose to use this name as an image for travels, both real and imaginary, which bring musicians together to create their music. Each musician of Saiyuki is blessed with a double culture combining tradition & modernity and is a virtuoso of their very specific instrument.

Nguyên Lê’s "Overseas" – the great guitarist brings jazz, traditional Vietnamese music and hip-hop to the music for “Cirque-Nouveau”.

Nguyên Lê is a magician; his art reveals itself not only in his own compositions but also in his celebrations of the music of the past, where his approach to the latter resembles sculptures made of new clay. Remember Purple, his tribute to Jimi Hendrix, or more recently his Songs Of Freedom and its evocations of rock's greatest moments. He's a flamboyant guitarist and, while he shows courteous deference to his source material, he has always expressed the full diversity of an imaginary world engendered by his own history, that of a nomad, self-taught virtuoso: his music feeds on influences embracing all continents, and is painted with colours drawn from jazz, rock, and a kind of world fusion permeated with light.

Join Luke Nguyen as he travels the length and breadth of the French culinary landscape to discover its food, culture and people.

Nguyên Lê's collaborates with vocalist Ngô Hồng Quang on Hà Nội Duo, an apparent study in contrasts as the two Vietnamese artists could not have had more different upbringings and musical education. And yet they found they had common goals, to express and share the soul of Vietnam with the wider world, bringing together the roots and the future of Vietnamese music. They each contribute three original songs to the album, rounded out by four traditional numbers. The duo is joined on various tracks by trumpeter Paolo Fresu, koto player Mieko Miyazaki and tabla player Prabhu Edouard.