HCM CITY— A concert featuring jazz fusion and world music by four artists will be staged at HCM City’s VOH Music One this week.  

The event, Vuông Tròn - Sky & Earth, features Vietnamese-French singer Hương Thanh, Japanese zitherist Kengo Saito, French drummer Patrice Heral, and Malian Ballaké Sissoko, a noted player of the kora (a lute-harp from Mali).   

The artists will perform solo several pieces of jazz-fusion and world music, with an emphasis on folk culture. 

Singer Thanh began her love for traditional music and cải lương (reformed opera) career from her father, famous composer Lưu Hữu Phước.  

She began her career at a young age. In 1977 she moved to live in France and performed in Europe, and in 1995, began singing jazz.

She won the first prize Prix Musiques du Monde, presented by the national public radio channel France Musique in 2007.

Later she returned to Việt Nam to make the album Musique du Théatre Cải Lương/Cải Lương Music, recorded and distributed by Ocora Radio France.

Her album features songs in cải lương by well-known composers from southern provinces. 

Thanh has released several albums, including Moon and Wind, Dragonfly, Mangustao and Fragile Beauty, which used jazz and Vietnamese folk music.

Her albums feature Vietnamese-French jazz artist Nguyên Lê, artists such as Paolo Fresu of Italy, Renaud Garcia Fons of Spain, Dhafer Youssef of Tunisia, Richard Bona of Cameroon and Francois Verly of France.

In 2011, she performed in Cầm Kỳ Thi Họa (Music, Chess, Poem, Painting), a concert featuring the Camkytiwa band of four folk music players from China, South Korea and Japan, at the HCM City Music Conservatory. 

In Vuông Tròn - Sky & Earth, Thanh will perform songs using Vietnamese folk music and jazz.  

The concerts will be held at 8pm on June 16 at VOH Music One on 37 Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Street in District 1. Tickets are available at the box office. — VNS