Cuong Vu leads his trio in a setting with guest, guitarist Pat Metheny.
Iconoclast Vu writes complex circuitous inventions that test the limits of not only his bandmates but the listener as well. Not meant as background music, unless you concentrate and lose yourself in his mix’n’match melodies and their not- so-obvious harmonic constructions, you will not hear what he’s puttin’ down. This stuff, when turned loud enough, is foreground entertainment for hipsters, daddyo. The more you listen, the more you derive its singular essence: freedom. In the hands of the wrong folks, that could mean obtrusive cacophony. In the hands of masters like these, it could only mean entangled–and enlightened–bliss. - BBC – Mike Greenblatt