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Pham Duc Thanh with Lieu Nguyet Lan, vocals
Vietnamese Traditional Music (Oliver Sudden Productions)
$15.99

Experience the diverse traditional sounds of Vietnam as performed by multi-instrumentalist Pham Duc Thanh and singer Lieu Nguyet Lan.
Vietnamese traditional Music is extremely rich and diverse ranging from ceremonial and theatre music to popular folk songs. Due to geography and history, the technically complex music of Vietnam reveals Chinese and Indian influences. The former is reflected in the stringed instruments and musical theory, while the latter is expressed in the drums and rhythms. Adding to this complexity are Vietnam's distinct regional (northern, central and southern) and ethnic minority traditions.

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Also by Pham Duc Thanh - Vietnamese Traditional Dan Bau Music

Deep in the classical tradition of Vietnamese string-dominated ensembles is a theory on precisely how to strike or pluck the strings of the dan bau to obtain the sliding effects and pitches that make up traditional music. Pham Duc Thanh, however, is an innovator who has modified the dan bau... ...In sum, this is an important addition to the small number of traditional music albums being produced by the expatriate Vietnamese community in Canada and the United States. -Aaron Howard, RootsWorld (read the complete review)

About the artist:
nternationally acclaimed dan bau player, Pham Duc Thanh was born in Ninh Binh, northern Vietnam, in 1956. Displaying a remarkable musical aptitude as a child, Pham was already playing the dan bau (monochord) as well as the dan tranh (16-string zither) and dan nhi (two-string fiddle) by the age of six. In 1974, Pham moved to Hanoi, where he studied at a popular traditional theatre school and joined the leading Hat Cheo theatre group as a dan bau player. After attending Saigon's Research Center for Music, he went on to become one of country's top dan bau players of traditional and contemporary music. In August 1990, Pham and his wife, singer Lieu Nguyet Lan, left Vietnam and moved to Germany for several years before emigrating to Canada in 1996. Today, the Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist is known as one of the world's leading exponents of traditional Vietnamese music. Besides his solo work, Pham has also appeared on over 20 internationally released CDs including the movie soundtrack for Tony Bui's Three Seasons, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.