The Japan Foundation and CAMA Vietnam are proud to present internationally famous Japanese jazz group SOIL&“PIMP” SESSIONS who will entertain Hanoi on March 2. The event marks the 40^th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Japan and Vietnam (Japan – Vietnam Friendship Year 2013) and will take place at the Van Ho Exhibition Centre, Hanoi.

Tickets for this event are FREE and available from Monday 4 February (4/2/13) @ The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, 27 Quang Trung and CAMA ATK, 73A Mai Hac De

SOIL&“PIMP” SESSIONS combine world class musicianship with the coolest of sounds and attitude into a heady mix of jazz, fun and entertainment. Their brand of jazz is unconventional and designed to break down barriers, whether they be conventions of genre, cultural barriers or stolid audience-performer relationships.

Starting out in Tokyo clubs in 2001, the band quickly became notorious and attracted worldwide attention for their new brand of aggressive, energetic and danceable music which they called “death jazz”. Before long, the band wasbeing championed by musical tastemakers like Giles Peterson who released six of the group’s seven albums on his Brownswood recordings label. Since 2005, the band have played the biggest festivals in Europe, such as Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, Glastonbury in the UK, Fuji Rock in Japan and the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. They also appeared on Later…with Jools Holland, the UK’s longest running and most respected live music TV program.

The band’s live show is famous the world over for being an interactive experience, something that sets them apart from other jazz groups. As the band themselves say, “We always felt that in the world of jazz, there was an unwritten rule that the musicians were to concentrate on their techniques and the audience were simply there to admire, like a transmitter/ receiver relationship. We wanted to break away from that and create exciting jazz with far more interaction between the players and the audience”. The band pulls this off with both their infectious rhythms and their energetic frontman Shacho, who acts as “the agitator”, playing a key role by in connecting the audience to the band.

Joining SOIL&“PIPM” SESSIONS in Hanoi will be local jazz-funk group, Nga tu Mat dien. The quintet has been playing shows in Hanoi’s capital for more than 15 years and has a tight enough sound to prove it. At the Van Ho Exhibition Center, the group will be reinventing jazz standards through a funk and Latin lense.

Keeping the party going between bands will be GiGiMix, one of Hanoi’s most entertaining DJs. With a love of swing, jazz and funk, the French-native never fails to keep crowds in the party mood with up-beat, feel-good sets that cross genres and cultures.

The concert will take place at the Van Ho Exhibition Center, 2 Hoa Lu, Hai Ba Trung on Saturday March 2^nd. Tickets are free and can be obtained from CAMA ATK (73A Mai Hac De, Hai Ba Trung and) The Japan Foundation (27 QuangTrung, HoanKiem) from February 4.

Tokyo Jazz Club

Saturday 2 March

Van Ho Exhibition Center – 2 Hoa Lu

Event Time 6pm – 11pm

Soil & “Pimp” Sessions from 8pm 

Free tickets available from Feb 4 at:

The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam

27 QuangTrung, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi

[Opening days]

Mon – Fri     09:30 – 18:00

Sat                  09:30 – 11:30 / 12:30 – 18:00

Closed on Sundays and Tet holidays from Sat 9 – Sun 17

Open on Sun 24 (09:30 – 18:00)

CAMA ATK

73A Mai Hac De, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi

[Opening days]

Wed – Sat   18:00 – midnight

Closed on Sun – Tue and Tet holidays from Sat 9 – Wed 13

CAMA rekindled their collaborations with China’s FakeMusicMedia to kiss the summer goodbye with a ballroom blitz garden party at the American Club, Saturday 25 August.

Italian disco was the sound of summer in Hanoi when CAMA lured Italy’s favourite producer, Rodion, to Vietnam’s capital. Described by Mixmag as “the new genius of Italian Dance music” the disco cowboy showed Hanoi what the genre was all about. Fantastic support sets from One Black Eye, Tri Minh and VN Tribes made the event one of CAMA’s biggest of the year – were you there?

Read More

Sponsored By:

See a 360º Panorama of the CAMA festival, almost like you were there
Read more

Showcasing the brash, innovative, youthful spirit of modern Japan and rising Vietnam, GO!GO! JAPAN! brought together top talent from the two countries in December 2011 at the Giang Vo Exhibition Center, Hanoi.

With three of the most talked-about acts on the Tokyo scene, Molice, Electric Eel Shock and Okamoto’s hitting the stage alongside homegrown Vietnamese fan favourites Ngu Cung and Rosewood, this was one monster rock event no rock fan wanted to miss. And no-one had to! Thanks to the support of the Japan Foundation, CAMA were able to slash ticket prices to just VND 60,000 – or 60 cents per band, which might get you seven cups of warm bia hoi in today’s Hanoi. Read more here

Carsick Cars are the most covered band in China and it’s not hard to see why. Writ­ing Pixie-esque noise-rock songs that never lose sight of a catchy musi­cal­ity tends to make you a few fans. Which is why Car­sick Cars are not only a main­stay of the Chi­nese punk rock scene, but have also toured Amer­ica and Europe, play­ing fes­ti­vals like Pri­mav­era, SXSW and All Tommorrow’s Parties.

Live, the act are a force to be reck­oned with. Hook laden songs are wretched apart by white noise in a fash­ion that would please fans of Jesus and the Mary Chain, Sui­cide or The Vel­vet under­ground. Per­for­mances of sub­ver­sive favourite Zhong Nan Hai – the name of both a cig­a­rette brand and a metonym for the Chi­nese lead­er­ship – see the band bom­barded by loose cig­a­rettes from the crowd, in a rit­ual that per­fectly rep­re­sents how impor­tant this band are to alter­na­tive music in China.

Read more