The idea is for students here and in Vietnam to learn from each other's musical traditions. Scale sheets are available, as are compositions by Jason, Adam and Chris. The district also included a video of the three demonstrating improvisation with a fourth classmate, Adam Semanoff. On paper, the jazz project is an odd marriage. Hanoi is the capital of the United States' enemy in a war that ended in the mid-1970s.
Jazz is the most American of art forms.
But the two nations have plenty in common besides the war. Nguyen, a Hanoi Conservatory graduate, is one of a growing list of contacts made by Barrows, who dreamed up the jazz project after falling in love with the music and cultures of Asia on a trip there in 1991. She also made friends, such as Nguyen, who offered introductions to officials at the Hanoi Conservatory. The conservatory educates students from the age of 6 through the early 20s, according to Nguyen. The institution is modeled on a school in Moscow, she said.