Concert Preview – Jazz Suite Quyen Thien Dac Quartet

Our music reviewer Paul Zetter see’s that October is warming up with the first of several jazz concerts

I caught up with Dac in rehearsals at the jazz club yesterday for the concert Jazz Suite Night on 4 October. He explained that this will be the second time he has performed John Coltrane’s legendary A Love Supreme in Vietnam. But that this time, two years on from the first performance, he explains, he now has a deeper understanding of the spirituality John Coltrane was trying to convey. ‘It’s going to be more soulful this time’ he adds with a wry smile.

By the sounds of the rehearsal with a stellar band including the scholarly Nguyen Minh Duc on bass, the exciting Nguyen Dinh Phuc on piano and the irrepressible Nguyen Minh Duc on drums it’s going to be a great night of jazz. Also on the set list is Dac’s original suite, Father and Son written in dedication to his famous alto playing father.

With more upcoming jazz concerts including the next Jump for Jazz production and Håkan Rydin, a professor at Malmo Academy of Music coming over from Sweden for some concerts it’s a great time for Hanoi jazz lovers.

Words and photographs by Paul Zetter