Musician Le Minh Son: "The father practicing spelling"

(Baonghean) - Son "potty" improvisation

Listening and "feeling" the music of the musician with long hair and a wandering, romantic look since the day "Oh my hometown" was sung by Tung Duong on the Vietnamese music stage, but unexpectedly meeting "the one who always goes against the crowd" right in a small corner of Vinh city. It turned out that Le Minh Son went to Nghe An to survey and hoped to find cooperation in making the program "Du ca Viet". He told us, with a miserable look as if afraid that someone among us would misunderstand: "I did not come here to... ask for money. I long to make "Du ca Viet" - a journey of traveling through cultural regions". It seemed that somewhere, there were misunderstandings that made Le Minh Son "toughen up" like that. But very quickly, after the fatigue and disappointment, there was a Le Minh Son full of enthusiasm.

A Le Minh Son full of pride to be able to "live" with all the love, instinctive desires, and with his own uniqueness. Newcomers are therefore often surprised by his somewhat rushed, somewhat "over-the-top" language. But I quickly realized that he often reserved that exaggeration of language for a very sharp, perceptive comment, viewpoint or idea. Sometimes a bit too thorny and "different", but that is absolutely not a pretense. However, when he holds the guitar and sings, everything calms down, leaving only Le Minh Son with his passion and enthusiasm.

Musician Le Minh Son.

Instead of singing “Oh my hometown” as many people requested, he improvised by picking up the guitar and singing... It was a song for children, he said, and... it had not been released. Even until now, I still cannot remember the name of the song, I only know that it was a very cute and unique song, as it did not follow the beaten path of a conventional composition as we used to know with feelings of praise and full of love. It started with a child's spelling: “Bồ ô, bò ô sắc bộ…”, and ended with a very simple sentence, like a daily saying of a child (and of any child): “Bồ ơi, con cần cái bô”. We were surprised by the unsurprising thing that Lê Minh Sơn put into music. Could it be that the musician with that arrogant and “indifferent” appearance had turned simple and ordinary things into interesting gifts, something that we have long lost the habit of feeling?

I don't understand why "Son Bo" (after this song of his, we also "improvised" to call him that, he laughed but seemed very pleased) sang us another song in the genre of... music "for children". Having finished practicing spelling, now let's watch the father wake up his son every morning! "My little son, it's morning, time to wake up. The ten o'clock flower is about to bloom. Your lips are about to smile. In your dream, there is no old wolf. There is only a little goat, a green bank of grass, and the sound of green birds"...

A Le Minh Son is rough and wild in real life but so innocent and dreamy in music. He sits there with his guitar, innocent like a child, like a tree, a ray of sunshine, a drop of dew, shimmering with amazement. There is only him and only innocence, even when he sings the words of a father tenderly waking his son from a lush dream...

Musician Le Minh Son said he observed that in reality, children today sing adult music, so “children’s music is too neglected”. According to him, “children’s music now needs a new breath”, so he wants to bring that breath, close but surprisingly interesting, simple but modern.

And the dream of wandering

“Du ca Viet” is the first reality TV show that Le Minh Son is the music director and narrator of. The show will be held in many provinces and cities, but wherever it goes, the singing must reflect the cultural characteristics of that locality. “When it comes to Nghe An, it must have the Nghe An folk song Vi Giam style, sung with Nghe An accent. I was shocked when young singers from Nghe An appeared on stage with a typical Northern accent,” Le Minh Son shared.

For him, each trip is another time he “gets”. To sing, to experience, to live, to know who he is in this life, to love, to miss, and to be inspired for new compositions… “Chuon chuon ot”, “Oh my hometown”, “Ben bo ao nha minh”, “Han hanh”, “Net Viet”… are songs imbued with Le Minh Son’s experiences after the trips. He really wants to devote himself to this life so that he can devote himself to music. Le Minh Son’s folk-style songs are always loved by the audience, perhaps because they find in his travels a deep love for the countryside, for the unique traditional cultural features of each region of the country.

Le Minh Son once said that he was proud and felt lucky that he was born in a hometown where there were still fields, storks, and his grandmother's warm lullabies. He was always afraid that one day those images and sounds would no longer exist. He was worried that the children would lose the space of their childhood, the storks, the lullabies, the cool green of the countryside, the creaking sound of hammocks, the bright red dragonflies in the summer sun. He was worried that one day, the children would no longer feel the vastness of a vast summer afternoon, the lullabies floating in the wind, the black buffalo leisurely grazing... - the sweet happiness he had throughout his childhood. And he was also afraid that one day, not only on a large stage in the capital, but even on a small space like the stage of Nghe An Labor Culture House, local singers would no longer speak in their original Nghe accent...

That is why he made “Du ca Viet” to find back for music and life what has been lost, is being lost and may be lost. Find back for children their youthful innocence. And not only find it for everyone, Le Minh Son travels to find it for himself. He wants to blend into that innocence, like that father learning to spell. He wants to learn and connect more with each land, to live more to recharge his energy for his creative work. The musician said, when coming to this land, he really wanted to immerse himself in the flow of Nghe An folk songs. He suddenly trembled when he encountered the deep sadness and morality in those lyrics, when my friend sang: “My dear, one oath is not fate, then debt/ Two oaths are not wife, then husband/ Three oaths are to open mountains and block rivers/ I am determined to follow you to fulfill my duty, otherwise you will wait in vain”...

Article and photos:Thuy Vinh