Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese musicians Nguyen Le and Ngo Hong Quang have beennominated for Echo Jazz 2018, a prestigious jazz award hosted by the ACT Musicrecording company.

The winners will be announced on May 31 in Hamburg, Germany.
Nguyen Le (real name Le Thanh Nguyen), 59, is a French Vietnamese. He has beennominated in the International Guitar Artist category.

Ngo Hong Quang, 35, has been nominated for the Instrumentalist of the Year,Various Instruments category. He is a graduate of the Traditional InstrumentsDepartment of the Vietnam Music Academy and has a master’s degree incontemporary composing from the National Music Academy in the Netherlands.

Both musicians have been nominated for their joint album, Hanoi Duo,released in January 2017.

The album includes 10 of their newly composed songs, some of which bear deeptraditional Vietnamese characteristics. The album was re-mixed by Nguyen Le inmodern style and was recorded in France.

ACT Music’s website quotes the Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung newspaper about Nguyen Le: “Nobody plays the guitar likehim, the very first exclusive ACT artist ever. Born to Vietnamese parents inParis in 1959, Nguyen Le is one of the most versatile and independentguitarists in the world, going far beyond the bounds of jazz music and shapedby varied influences such as Asian music, modern jazz, fusion and classicrock.”

The website quotes Nguyen Le’s description of what lies at the heart of thiscollaboration: “Ngo Hong Quang and I are two Vietnamese musicians whoseupbringing and musical education and evolution could not have followed moredifferent paths. And yet we have found that we both share common goals: toexpress and to share the soul of Vietnam with the wider world, to bringtogether the roots and the future of Vietnamese music.”

ACT is considered one of the finest curators of progressive jazz and creativemusic.

With a roster that boasts some of the most influential contemporary jazzrecordings in recent years, including the epoch-defining sound of the sorelymissed EsbjörnSvensson Trio and a wide range of leading jazz instrumentalistsand singers since its foundation in 1992 by music manager and producer SiggiLoch, German label ACT has grown to become a global force.

Over the past 25 years, ACT has championed an incredible array of jazz artistswho are defined by their desire to push musical boundaries while reaching outto a wider audience, with both authenticity and innovation at their core.-VNA