NGUYÊN LÊ

Nguyen Le is one of the most remarkable prog guitarists of the past twenty years, and some of his albums (notably SAIYUKI, SONGS OF FREEDOM and SIGNATURE EDITION 1) can be compared to the best of Allan Holdsworth or Al DiMeola. This tribute to THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, though, doesn't quite come off. One of the main problems is that Nguyen makes such extensive use of the NDR Bigband. I suppose most people who consult Prog Archives are too young to realise this, but there once was a time when rock music was only rarely used in films and on T.V. A lot of family entertainment used 'big band' music instead - a situation that only started changing in the 1970s. And as long as that situation kept going I thoroughly disliked it. (Modern big bands still give me the creeps. I feel differently about truly classic big bands. Duke Ellington's band from 1940-1942, for example, was so original and recorded so many amazing tunes that I can only sit back in wonder.) So when Nguyen Le (with the help of renowned arranger Michael Gibbs) gives the familiar DSOTM tunes a big band arrangement, when he even has David Gilmour's original guitar solo on 'Time' performed by big band (something that reminds me of Frank Zappa handing Jimmy Page's classic solo from 'Stairway to Heaven' to his wind section on THE BEST BAND YOU NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE), I switch off. Completely. A second problem is that Nguyen doesn't do full justice to his amazing vocalist, Youn Sun Nah. Sure, he lets her sing 'Breathe', 'Brain Damage' and 'Eclipse', and it feels great to have the songs interpreted by a female vocalist. But on 'Time' and 'Money' (the catchiest tunes on the album) he replaces the original vocals with lead guitar, which merely sounds cheesy. Furthermore, he almost completely leaves out the amazing vocal climax of 'The Great Gig in the Sky'. Perhaps Ms. Nah simply couldn't match Clare Torry? Instead, there's a two-minute vocalise called 'Magic Spells' which sounds eerie and rather beautiful, but it still leaves you wanting for more. Admittedly, this tribute album does contain a smattering of the tasteful guitar solos Nguyen is famous for. (Oh, the things he does with his whammy bar!) It also has lovely contributions by Vladyslav Sendecki on piano and Juergen Attig on fretless bass. I suppose it's worth hearing at least once. But you won't play it half as often as the original DARK SIDE and it can't hold a candle to Nguyen Le's best albums.

— First review of this album —

Nguyên Lê is amazing. His guitar work is unique, inspiring, technically challenging, fired with soul, jazzy, rocking, and drips of fusion yet goes even further. You will hear world music (far-Eastern/Southeast Asian) scales and note treatments in attack, vibrato, and bends. Lê is of Vietnamese heritage but knows full well the world of jazz and rock.

He can play light-hearted, crystalline-clear tones, dreamy chordal sustains, wielding an endless barrage of effects and suddenly flat- out scream and wail like a banshee as if Ninja warriors had invaded the studio. I have never heard anything quite like him. I was deeply impressed first listen to this release. This is a guitarists' guitarist kind of CD. Every jazz musician and fusion musician needs to hear this magic.

For references sake, I suppose you can hear echoes of Bill Frisell, Terje Rypdal, Steve Kahn(Blades era), Wayne Johnson, Kazumi Watanabe, and even Steve Tibbetts but . . . Lê is standing all alone in his total sound and delivery. My adored track was "La Parfum" for its simple elegance, beauty, and its power to transport me into bliss . . .

If you want the crunch go straight to his fiery boogie on "Straight No Chaser" and then sample the very fusiony "Dance of the Comet". But really this is CD to be experienced in totality. You will discover sounds and feelings you will thrill to if you love great guitar-driven jazz. Highest of recommendations!!!

A strong jazz-fusion outing from the French-Vietnamese guitar master. Sacrificing a bassist, the disk has a lighter feel than might be expected, yet the tunes can reach a ferocious intensity when required. The opening track is a case in point, with Le's guitar solo blistering in the way it slowly builds up to a blissful climax. Paul McCandless handles a range of woodwind instruments and pianist Art Lande shows his dextrous abilities, covering a wide sonic range. Jamey Haddad plays intermittently on both standard kit and percussion. The compositions are consistently strong and the players are at the top of their games. Fans of Le who want to hear him in a relatively more standard jazz outfit would be delighted with this disk:

One of Nguyen Le's first and best attempts to combine Vietnamese traditional music with the progressive jazz stylings that he encountered in his hometown of Paris. Longtime collaborator Huong Thanh provides her wonderfully graceful vocals to the disk, while Le adds guitar virtuosity alongside strong compositions and arrangements. Paolo Fresu's trumpet adds an impetuously modern tone that contrasts superbly with the more traditional elements of the arrangements. The album highlight is Promise of a Date - a tune of smouldering intensity and a strong testament to Le's unique guitar prowess, using his whammy bar to elicit micro-tonal subtleties that closely evoke the feel of an erhu (Chinese violin). Strongly recommended.

Very enjoying fusion album by semi acoustic power trio. Nguyen Le is well known by his guitar acrobatics, influenced by Hendrix and SE Asian folklore both. This one of early album is one I really like - not a world fusion of Nguyen later works, but real electric guitar-led jazz fusion, influenced by Hendrix, but enough personal not to be a clone.

There are two covers on this album - Hendrix's classics " Little Wing" and James Brown's classics " I Feel Good". Other compositions are original. Both covers sound very competent, but not too far from originals (ok, "I Feel Good" is less funky and more Hendrix-like).

But main interest is original compositions. Nguyen's guitar, even openly Hendrix-influenced, sound softer, more soulful, and more jazzy. Compositions sound well rounded and well balanced, with many (jazzy) emotional accents. Playing quite popular kind of fusion, Nguyen still is able to find his own sound. Album's sound mix is minimalist acoustic, what is real plus.

In all - really very enjoying album. Yes, you will hardly find there innovations or experimentations, but for classic, even vintage jazz fusion album, this work sounds surprisingly fresh and attractive. Main album's problem is luck of originality, but you will find it in later Nguyen albums (to be honest with different success).

My rating is 3+.

— First review of this album —

First ever French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le compilation (in 2 x CD form). Even if I (as many) usually don't like compilations, this one attracted my attention. The main reason Le, being an original and very professional musician, isn't so wide known, and his albums are rare outside of France.

I own few of his studio works, and I really like them. So - such a compilation is a great possibility to listen his works retrospective (he released 10 studio albums till now). Again, whenever I know his music only fragmentally, it's impossible for me to evaluate how representative this compilation is.

Double CD with 24 songs - big amount of music. It is for good and for bad. There is enough space for many compositions from different albums. But - bigger part of works there is kind of world (Oriental) fusion, and listening to this long release in moments I felt a bit bored. Unhappily, not every composition is such different , and after few similar ones in line I caught myself I feel like listening one long soundtrack to film about Viet Nam.

To be honest - not the all music is Oriental fusion. There are enough jazz and jazz-rock moments on this album as well. Nguyen guitar is influenced by Hendrix and US fusion guitarists, he is often minimalist, but adding big portion of SE Asian tunes and techniques he always sound original.

Possibly most interesting compositions are with Oriental vocal and heavy Vietnamese folk influences. More traditional fusion and guitar jazz numbers sound competent, but not very original.

Still his specialty is Oriental fusion. For those searching more classical jazz rock I would recommend Nguyen studio album "Purple" (Tribute to Hendrix). Nice work, but I believe that one CD format would be more focused and concentrated.

My rating is 3+.

Nguyen Le most commercially successful album till now. Jimmy Hendrix is one of the most popular artist in the world, and his musical legacy was re-covered hundred times. There are better covers and terrible covers, but generally no one is interested to hear few more Hendrix covers, isn't it?

With my hate to copy-cats and imitators, this album is rare one covers album I not only enjoy a lot, but would like to recommend it to other listeners!

French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguen Le is known by his original mix of European and Oriental fusion. And he demonstrates his abilities on "Purple" album in full. Well-known Hendrix compositions (mostly - psychedelic blues-rock) are transferred to different field there. Excellent guitarist, using minimalistic sound and help of skilled African, Asian and Balkan musicians, reworks Hendrix legacy without destroying it.

As a result, you have full collection of songs you will recognize easily, but will be surprised how different they could be played! One of most accessible Nguyen Le album contains multicultural (and multi linguistic) mix of Oriental blues, World fusion and jazz, all based on classical Hendrix repertoire. Interesting, that having three different vocalists, all album's vocal is female (Hendrix songs!).

It's a bit pity that this not very experimental but extremely interesting and pleasant album isn't known enough. Really recommended!

My rating is 4+!

Newest NGUYÊN LÊ album is based on Chinese novel written in the XVI th century by Wu Cheng'en. SAIYUKI is the Japanese name for the « Journey to the West ». So, as you can expect, there is world fusion, but quite unusual. Two supporting musicians both are virtuosos of their very specific instruments (national Japanese and South-Eastern Asia percussions and strings, plus vocals).

Very first song is traditional very acoustic Japanese song, with Nguen electric guitar added. Second one is a bit more folk-jazzy. Combination of authentic SE Asian folk music, very acoustic and melodic, but played in more extra-high technique manner, with some East- West sounding electric guitar, built very strange, beautiful and magic sounds there.

Nguen guitar has unique sound, kind of melted Hendrix energy and eastern melodic scheme."Mayur" is more world-rock fusion, with long electric guitar line."Sangam", next song, continues with more modern sound, with faster tempo and more usual fusion structure and sound. Eastern influences are all the time somewhere very near, but not main accent there.

"Azur" is melancholic ballade with almost Western melodies and musical structure, but played with exotic Eastern instruments. Imagine Al Di Meola work with New Sinfonia, but if all musicians will be played with Eastern musical instruments.

"Hen Ho" is return back to traditional Asian folk, filled with electric guitar sound."Nanae Goromo " is another guitar based ballade with Mieko Miyazaki lyrical singing. "Ila", the last album's song, is slow string melody, with almost blues structure ( Asian blues?).

All the album is excellent piece of acoustic, beautiful, exotic and magical music, full of tasteful improvisations and perfectly played. Really, very unusual and pleasant work, very recommended!

For sure 4,5!