Van-Anh Vanessa Vo: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Van-Anh Vanessa Vo is a veteran when it comes to taking risks, and it pays off in her compelling music. As a young girl in Vietnam, she knew she wanted to be a traditional musician, even though it was a world dominated by men. It was risky, then, when she pestered a master teacher for three years to give her lessons. He finally gave in, taking her on as an apprentice. Vo also takes risks in blending East with West in her music. She lends a trippy sound to Frenchman Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, performed on the dan Bau, the traditional Vietnamese monocord. The instrument (“invented by bad girls on the street“) has a single string, but by bending it with a kind of whammy bar made from buffalo horn, Vo creates a haunting landscape of growls, hushed vibrato and graceful slides, all with the exquisite phrasing of an opera singer. Vo’s infectious enthusiasm erupts in her own compositions. “Three-Mountain Pass“ (also the title of her recent album), for voice and Hang drum, is based on the sensuously evocative te