Pop trio Boat Beam from Spain is the sum of Alisha (American), Josephine (Australian), and Aurora (Spanish) (L-R).

The audience at the European Music Festival 2009 got a taste of pop, jazz and traditional Vietnamese tunes in Ho Chi Minh City this week.

The band is the sum of Josephine (Australian), Alisha (American), and Aurora (Spanish). They used guitar, viola, cello and a piano to create Fiona Apple-esque pop tunes.

Josephine came to Madrid 2 years “to experience a different life” after spending time living in London, Sydney, India and South Africa.

“Travel really inspires me,” she said.

The highlight of the Boat Beam show was their hit song “Puzzle Shapes.” Beautiful vocals wrapped around a deluge of string melodies in a brilliant orchestration.

The beautiful 28-year-old vocalist said told Thanh Nien Weekly that the group’s second album would be completed early next year. She said the record would be “more profound, stylish and deep.”

After Boat Beam, Belgian pianist Charles Loos took the crowd’s breath away with his elegant classical Jazz solos. He said the compositions were inspired by classical music, folklore as well as the jazz of yesterday and today.

The purity and subtlety of “Temps de la nuit,” a rendition of “Happy Birthday” and “A Woman Journey” made for a refined show enjoyed by all.

Neo-retro

On 30 November, the festival continued its charm with the unpredictable performance of Dutch pianist Mike Del Ferro alongside Vietnam’s own Bac Ha traditional music group.

Del Ferro, a pianist and composer from Amsterdam, has recorded dozens of albums from Dixieland to Salsa and has arranged music for Oscar winning Danish animator Borge Ring.

The first part of the performance was Del Ferro’s modern jazz, which he then faded into the second half of the show when Bac Ha took joined him on stage.

Bringing a new flavor to some of Vietnam’s most widely popular songs, such as Diem xua (by Trinh Cong Son) and Xuy van gia dai (an extract from traditional cheo opera Kim Nham), Del Ferro improvised alongside Bac Ha’s traditional Vietnamese instruments: monochords, zithers, bamboo flutes and drums.

Though new and distinct, the performance brought back a nostalgia for the past for Vietnamese in the crowd, breaking down barriers between eras and countries, between classical and modern, East and West.

Reported by Tina Pham