Nguyen Le In Concert: GlobalFEST 2010

January 19, 2010 - Nguyen Le's album Saiyuki contains some of the best music I heard at GlobalFEST, held on Jan. 10 at New York City's Webster Hall. There, he cut a small figure, but he generated a mighty electric-guitar sound. It wasn't just the adventurous guitar — which sometimes sounded African and at other times channeled progressive rock — but he was also flanked by the extraordinary Mieko Miyazaki on koto (a zither-like Japanese stringed instrument). Completing the trio was tabla player Prabhu Edouard, who helped make this an extraordinary trio.

Nguyen Le grew up in Paris to Vietnamese parents. His resume includes being chosen to play with the French National Jazz Orchestra in 1987, and he's recorded more than 15 albums with jazz artists from places such as Serbia, the Netherlands, and the U.S. These collaborative efforts fostered a sound that draws upon Eastern instrumentation, while still built around Western arrangements.

Saiyuki, Japanese for "journey to the west," is the title of Nguyen Le's latest project. Inspired by a 16th-century Chinese novel, the work is described by the author as "an image for travels, both real and imaginary, that brings us together to create this music." That's a fitting description of what I heard: the work of a Frenchman born to Vietnamese parents, playing jazz on an electric guitar.