Bringing Vietnamese Music to America

Truong Le first fell in love with the Beatles in Saigon in 1970 when his father brought home one of the group’s albums.

The 7-year-old could not have asked for a better introduction to English-language songs. Now, 22 years later, he wants to bring Vietnamese sounds to the American people via New Age music. He has started recording real-life sounds, such as a rainstorm, to use as background for his guitar and hopes to have an album of his own produced in the future.

“American music was so popular in our country, partly because music is universal,” Le said. “Most Vietnamese did not understand clearly English words in the songs, but they were able to feel the rhythm. They felt the rock ‘n’ roll.

“And Vietnamese music, it’s so sentimental. There’s a desperate, romantic quality to it that can appeal to everyone at certain moods. I hope to bring it to the American public.”

He wants to concentrate on the melodies and not translate the words of Vietnamese songs into English, he said, because they will not translate well.

“Our best songs are full of symbolisms, and there’s a lot of comparing people or events to nature and such,” Le said. “They were written in a different time when people were more romantic. I don’t want to mess with it. It will be like trying to translate Shakespeare.”

The project adds to Le’s full schedule, which also includes working full time for the county as a social worker and volunteering Monday nights as anchorman for a nonprofit Vietnamese television show.

His passion for music began when he was 6, Le said. He learned to play the guitar and regularly performed in his school’s variety shows. When he left Saigon a decade later, he thought he would have to abandon that love in his new life.

But a community leader in his new hometown of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he was sponsored by a Catholic church, heard of Le’s interest in music and bought him a black guitar. The benefactor also asked Le to play and sing Vietnamese music at a Christmas fund-raiser for the church.

“It was just me on the stage with this beautiful, sleek guitar,” Le said. “I barely knew English, and I was very nervous. But I was so happy to be able to play my favorite songs again. I played and sang song after song in Vietnamese, and the audience really seemed to like it.”

The dream to market those songs to a non-Vietnamese audience was hatched then, and he carried the thought with him to California in 1985.

It has taken him since then to gain more experience by working with other Vietnamese musicians and to save up to buy his own musical equipment, Le said.

Now a multi-sound tracker, a recording mixer and general stereo equipment dominate his living room. Posters of the Beatles at various points in their careers are scattered on the walls.

From his musical workstation, Le faces a sliding glass door that offers a view of a tranquil garden behind the condominium he shares with his wife.

At times during the interview, Le let his guitar join in with sad Vietnamese tunes he learned in childhood.

Looking at his surroundings, Le seemed quite content, yet excited to be trying to realize his dream that maybe someday instrumental arrangements of Vietnamese music will be played on mainstream radio stations in the United States.

“Hear how nice this is; it’s so romantic,” Le said. “I just want to share this with everyone. The point is for others to recognize what I’m feeling right now.”