Nguyen Le 

on the main stage at Yoshi's Jazz Club 
San Francisco on October 31, 3012

"The show was magical."

 Lisa Bautista, Yoshi's


"What a treat it was to see such
an amazing group of musicians
  on our stage.  Pleased is an
understatement.  I was more
overwhelmed by the show!"
​
Derek Hunter, Yoshi's Talent Buyer

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Photos by 

Michelle Le   http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michelle-le/6/14b/16b 

and

 Steve Goldband  http://goldband.zenfolio.com/

Workshop/Rehearsal at  

​Stanford University



Born in Paris to Vietnamese parents, Nguyên Lê began to play drums at the age of 15, then took up guitar and electric bass. After  graduating in Visual Arts, he majored in Philosophy, writing a thesis on Exoticism. Then he devoted himself to music, creating "ULTRAMARINE"(1983), a multi-ethnic band whose CD "DÉ"  has been considered "1989's best World Music album" Philippe Conrath,  Libération.  
A self-taught musician,  Lê started to play out of any stylistic borders: rock and funk (Jim Cuomo, Madagascar 84), jazz standards and avant-garde jazz (Marc Ducret, Yves Robert), pop singers (Ray Charles), contemporary music (André Almuro, Tona Scherchen, Marius Constant, Mauricio Kagel), ethnic music: African and Caribbean with ULTRAMARINE (85), Algerian with Safy Boutella & Cheb Mami, Indian with Kakoli, Turkish with Kudsi Erguner, Vietnamese  with the learning of  "Dan Bau" (monocorde) in 1979.

In September, 1987,  he was chosen by director Antoine Hervé to play with the O. N. J.  (French  National  Jazz Orchestra). In this big band, he played with such  musicians  as  Johnny  Griffin,  Louis Sclavis, Didier Lockwood, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Randy Brecker, Toots Thielemans, Courtney Pine, Steve Lacy, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones.

Lê's work also deals with programming synthesizers, effects and computers, as well as writing orchestral pieces : "PROCESSOR"  composed, arranged, and recorded on the CD "O.N.J. 87" & "LUNIK II" ,co-arranged with  Dominique Borker and performed by the O.N.J. in 1989.
In September, 1989, he recordsedULTRAMARINE's 2nd album "DÉ" , and in May, 1090, his  first album as  a leader : "MIRACLES"  recorded in the U.S. with Art Lande, Marc Johnson, and Peter  Erskine.  At  the same time, he worked  with such musicians  as  Michel  Portal,  Miroslav  Vitous, Trilok Gurtu,  J. F. Jenny Clarke, Aldo Romano, Daniel Humair, Dewey Redman, Andy Emler, Jon Christensen, Nana Vasconcelos, Glenn Ferris, Christof Lauer, Paolo Fresu, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor , and more.
In May, 1992, after a month  tour with Paul McCandless on  winds, Art Lande on piano,  Dean Johnson on bass, and Joël Allouche on drums, he recorded his second album ZANZIBAR, which won an award from Télérama. In January, 1993, he recorded "INIT", a trio with André Ceccarelli, François Moutin, and Bob Berg, while setting up a new band focussed on the music of Jimi Hendrix,  with Corin Curschellas (voc), Steve Argüelles (d), Richard Bona (b).

Since January, 1993, he has been a frequent guest soloist of Köln's WDR Big Band,  especially with composer/director  Vince  Mendoza.  Lê plays on three of his projects: "Jazzpaña", "Sketches" w/ Dave Liebman, Charlie Mariano, Peter Erskine, and "Downtown",  w/ Russell Ferrante.

In April, 1994, he was the guest soloist on "The New Yorker", a suite by Bob Brookmeyer, with Dieter Ilg (b) & Danny Gottlieb (d). With these two musicians, he created his first trio and recorded "MILLION WAVES" in December, 1994. About this CD, Télérama wroite : "This trio brings him to some musical spaces which he had not even imagined, & which are pure poetry".
He later played in a trio with Michel Benita(b) & Peter Erskine (d), recording on Michel Portal's new album with Ralph Towier (g), & worked with Ornette Coleman on one of his contemporary music pieces, "Freedom Statue".

In June, 1995, he was poerformed with the WDR Big Band in "Azure Moon", with the Yellowjackets and Vince Mendoza. In July, 1995, in the Stuttgart Festival, he was one of the guest guitarists to celebrate the "Universe of Jimi Hendrix", beside Trilok Gurtu, Terry Bozzio, Cassandra Wlison, Jack Bruce, Vernon Reid, David Torn, Victor Bailey, Pharoah Sanders, and others.

Later, he played with John McLaughlin, Michel Petrucianni, Markus Stockhausen, Enrico Rava, Ray Anderson, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Dave Douglas, Wolfgang Pushnig, Uri Caine, Tigran Hamasyan, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Joe Lovano., and others.
In April, 1996,  Lê creates "Tales from Viêt-Nam", a project on Vietnamese music, with a 8-piece band blending jazz and traditional musicians. With stage director P. J. San Bartolomé, he created " Of the Moon & the Wind ", a complete show, where traditional and contemporary Vietnamese dancers are integrated to the "Tales from Viêt-Nam" orchestra. The CD  received a great welcoming from international critics : Diapason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Choc of Year 1996 Jazzman, 2nd best CD 96 for JAZZTHING (Germany), Best CD 96 on radio TRS 2 (CH), "a minor masterpiece" JAZZTIMES (USA).
 In April, 1997, Lê released his 5th CD, " 3 Trios", with Marc Johnson/Peter Erskine, Dieter Ilg/Danny Gottlieb, and Renaud Garçia Fons/ Mino Cinelu. JAZZIZ Magazine said: " At times, jazz guitar can sound staid - but not in the case of N. Lê. He’s forever breaking boundaries for our benefit".

He  recorded 2 CDs with Paolo Fresu’s quartet:  Angel  (2/98) & and Metamorfosi  (4/99). In May, 1998, he recorded  Maghreb & Friends», an exploration of Maghreb musical traditions and a deep collaboration with Algerian musicians.  "Far from a false world music, N. Lê simply touches, with force and intensity, to universality " F. Medioni.  Lê produced the first CD of Huong Thanh, "Moon & Wind", entirely done in his home studio. He also has been nominated for the  Victoires de la Musique 1999 award.

His  CD,  BAKIDA , featured his regular trio with Renaud Garçia Fons (b) & Tino di Geraldo (perc, dr) plus guests from all over the world, including Kudsi Erguner, Chris Potter, Carlos Benavent and others.  This CD has been voted "best jazz album of the year" by "CD Compact" (Spain). ELB, a  trio CD recorded in Rainbow studios, Oslo, features Peter Erskine and Michel Benita. Le toured with Terri Lyne Carrington's band, with Geri Allen, Matt Garrison, and Gary Thomas, and played with Maria Schneider. 
        
Sept 2002 : 2nd CD of Huong Thanh « Dragonfly ». In June, 2002, he was invited by the Metropole Orchestra (NL) to play his music arranged by Vince Mendoza.« Purple, an album celebrating Jimi Hendrix, was released in September, 2002. That month, it was number 1 on the charts of UK magazine "Jazzwise".

"Mangustao", Huong Thanh's 3rd album,  released in January. 2004, was awarded as "Choc de la Musique" by French magazine "Le Monde de la Musique". In March 2005, he release of "Walking on the Tiger's Tail", an albummade  with his great friends Art Lande, Paul McCandless, and Jamey Haddad.  “A universe where the alliance between acoustic and electric, improvisation and writing, inner delicacy and virtuosic expressivity reach the ideal balance.”(Le Monde).

Several projects were built in 2006 : the score writing of "Le Sheitan", a movie by Kim Chapiron with Vincent Cassel, and Homescape, a very electronic, improvised, and mystical recording in duo with Paolo Fresu and Dhafer Youssef, all done at home, #1 in « Jazzwise » April 2006 charts; the score for the Vietnamese movie "Saigon Eclipse" by Othello Khanh; the recording of "Mozart" last Uri Caine's album; a 13-gig tour in USA with "Tiger's Tail" quartet, thanks to a CMA/FACE grant; two "classical" compositions commissioned by the Ahn Trio & the Laguna Beach Fest in LA.  Lê was unanimously awarded as the guitar "Django d'Or" 2006. 

 In 2007, after tours in US and China, he released "Fragile Beauty", the 4th album with Huong Thanh «Simply an album that captures the heart from the first note and leaves it hungering for more as the last one fades» (All That Jazz). In 2008 he records "The Othello Syndrome" for Uri Caine, "Blauklang" for Vince Mendoza's & also « Dream Flight » a new ELB album, with guest Stéphane Guillaume on sax. A new album  comes out in oct 2009: SAIYUKI, an asian trio with Mieko Miyazaki (koto) & Prabhu Edouard (tablas) & special guest Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute). He’s the mixing engineer & co-producer of  Dhafer’s Youssef «Abu Nawas Rhapsody», Céline Bonacina’s «Way of Life» & Mario Canonge «Mitan». «Signature Edition», a double-CD album showing 20 years of music creation has been released by ACT in march 2010. AllAboutJazz will say: «the ample evidence of an artist whose voice has been his own from the very beginning». He’s guest soloist on Erkki Sven Tüür’s 5th symphony with Bremen Philarmonic. For the 2nd time Nguyên Lê is the recipient of the CMA/FACE grant which helps the «Saiyuki inviting Rudresh Mahanthappa» project to tour in US in the fall 2010. In 2011 he is awarded by the rank of «Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts & des Lettres» by French Cultural minister & receives the Django Reinhardt prize by French Academie du Jazz. «Ting Ning», excerpt from «Tales from Viet-Nam» (1996) is selected between only 4 european artists in the 6-CD compendium «Jazz: the Simthsonian Anthology». 

The album «Songs of Freedom», released in april 2011, is an exotic & eccentric reading of Pop hits from the 70’s with Illya Amar, Linley Marthe, St. Galland & guests Youn Sun Nah, David Linx, Dhafer Youssef, a.o. It has received a fantastic welcoming from international press («Record of the Year» & cover story in Jazzmagazine/Jazzman) & was on top jazz charts of Itunes & Amazon. N. Lê is part of «Nights on Earth», Vince Mendoza’s last album. He takes part of the first International Jazz Day celebration at Unesco with Herbie Hancock. In 2013 he produces the album «Doc Dao» for & with Hanoian singer Tung Duong, with which he receives 3 awards in Vietnam : «Best Song of the Year», «Man of the year» & «Best Show of the Year». In 2014, he released «Celebrating the Dark Side of the Moon», a very personal version of the famous Pink Floyd’s album, with the NDR Bigband, Youn Sun Nah, Gary Husband, and Michael Gibbs’ orchestrations. He was nominated as best international guitarist for the ECHO JAZZ 2015 (German Music Award) beside Bill Frisell & Pat Metheny.

 Hà Nôi Duo,  Nguyên Lê’s 16th album, was released in 2017. This duo was born in the meeting with traditional musician Ngo Hong Quang with the goal of expressing and sharing with the world the soul of Vietnam, and bringing together the roots and the future of Vietnamese music