KVT – Yamashita Plays Great Gershwin

KVT at a birthday bash with the VNSO

Well, if you were somewhere else on Saturday night, it couldn’t have been anywhere better than listening to a Japanese jazz pianist (also composer, essayist, and writer) perform with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Nha Hat Lon. After a swinging big band version of Glen Miller’s ‘Moonlight Seranade’ by the full orchestra, Yamashita Yosuke sat at the big grand and launched into his very exciting composition ‘Sembayama’, but the orchestra, under Ong Honna’s impish lead, launched into ‘Happy Birthday’ and Yamashita smiled broadly and enjoyed the accolade on the eve of his 70th …I can imagine the applause for the grand man at the concert on the 26th!

Popular and well known local jazz saxophonist celebrities Quyen Van Minh, Quyen Thien Dac, Nguyen Bao Long joined the Orchestra for the celebratory concerts and added a lot of big sound depth to “Sembayama’ and a really jumpy version of Billy Strayhorn/Duke Wellington’s ‘Take the A-Train’.

Purists would have raised their eyebrows a couple of centimeters at Yamashita’s version of George Gershwin’s very popular and well known ’Rhapsody in Blue’ but they had to take a back seat as the rest of us grabbed the piece with great gusto and gasped at the improvisations and jazz style sax interruptions accompanied by applause.

As soon as the clarinet starts to wail its intro and the trombones come in underneath and the rest of the winds and brass follow…and the pianist’s fingers stroke a few notes…and the muted trumpet comes in before the full orchestra swells gorgeously…you know that you’re glad you’ve got a seat with a view.

We didn’t want to let him go after he’d played the last notes with the orchestra and he and the orchestra gave us a swinging encore before he gave in and ended the night with a fine solo rendition of ‘Autumn Leaves’.

The best part about Yamashita’s Hanoi visits (there was one last year in March that was a trifle subdued at the start as it was about the same time as Japan’s big Quake) is the exhuberance shown by the orchestra members as they play along or sit and listen to the solos and tap their feet and fingers…and violinist Ta Phuong Vu’s head was bobbing in dance time in accord with half the audience.

One thing that I know is that when I’m 70 I want to be as vital and exciting as Mr Yamashita….pity about my lack of musical talent!

A grand night out that was even grander because most of the audience were Japanese and they are really good listeners…no talkers or mobiles or camera flashes to spoil the fun.

Once again the Japanese…soloist, conductor, official support, and audience….were overwhelmingly generous.

For Yamashita fans, here’s a great link to him playing ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ without accompaniment. The music starts six minutes into the video so manipulate it a bit.

For jazz pianist afficionados you won’t get better than this video of him playing his ‘Autumn Changes’.

And for those like me who get goose bumps every time the clarinet starts its notes to open Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody’ but who haven’t got a CD handy, here’s a link to a full orchestral performance….unfortunately not by the VNSO.