Vienna Teng

Vienna Teng. I first witnessed her voice several years ago when she
was on the David Letterman show. I still remember it fairly vividly:
I was sitting on my couch with my laptop, chatting with online
friends. My friend, Dave, comes online and suddenly writes, "CBS.
Letterman. NOW." It took me a moment to realize he meant TV, but I
found the remote, turned on the set, and froze dead in my tracks as
goosebumps rose all over my body. A slight shadow of a thing, Vienna
filled the screen with her elegance. She swayed gracefully as her
fingers danced lightly, but firmly, over the lovely ebonies and
ivories of a baby grand. She was singing "Gravity," which immediately
rendered itself a staple in my musical diet from that moment on.
Letterman, I think, was one of her first big breaks. She's still not
really "out there" that I know of, but she has gained a good share of
popularity and does lovely shows to eager audiences all over the
nation and even in other countries.

She's Chinese-American, and has sung at least one song entirely in
Chinese in fact - Green Island Serenade. (How I yearn to memorize
that one so I can "sing" along in my truck!) She started playing
piano at age five and began composing her own melodies around age
six... although she's said that she only plays her own compositions
from high school onward (at least publicly). She's sort of a cross
between pop and lounge music - i.e., kind of folksie/jazzy with a
touch of pop. I say lounge because of songs like Transcontinental,
1:30AM, in particular, but simply listening to her, one is easily able
to picture her singing to a small cozy group of evening patrons. As I
listen to her, I often imagine myself in a 50's or 60's bar room,
dimly lit, smokey air, blue spotlights... I'm looking over a sparkling
glass of glowing amber-green liquor, ruminating as I watch a poised,
white-gloved woman on stage singing along to an upright bass and a
soft tappity-tap of a snare. She's eyeing her following with a
seductively appraising look as she sings, lowering her eyelashes to
accentuate the effect she has on the gents. She uses her mike as a
vocal weapon. We are all shushed into silence by the power of her
voice. She smiles as she raises an eyebrow. A sparkle glints beneath
her lashes and she singers louder, stronger...

Yet, whenever I've seen Vienna on stage, she always looks very caught
up in her own singing. It's like she's scarcely aware of the eyes
upon her despite the roaming glance of the performer within.

I firmly believe that everyone has their own talents and that some are
just harder to see than others, but in her case, the talent is pretty
obvious. I'm quite spellbound by her, in fact. My lifelong love of
Peter Cetera's voice and the little emotional bursts he'd tuck in
there will always have my heart, but the lyrics were somehow never
quite so poignant as Richard Marx's husky insights, Vienna's lulling
truths, Eminem's harsh frankness or Amy Lee's wonderfully expressive
pain. Some folks just KNOW how to vocalize their hearts out and
thankfully for us, permit us to enjoy it while they do so. I savour
these hypnotizing tidbits for the expressive masterpieces that they are.

Here's my reaction to one of Vienna's many irresistible songs. I used
to write these "reviews" a lot while listening to Peter Cetera's
music, and now it's Vienna's turn to suffer my literary attentions. I
hope she doesn't mind. LOL.

PASSAGE
Vienna begins completely solo, soon accompanied by a crickety sound of
background noise, ever so slight. She sings of having died in a car
crash, and how her loved ones are coping. My heart is immediately
spellbound by the capturing lull of her eloquently descriptive
lyrics. I can see the wreckage of ironic innocence; the other driver
walking sadly (but gratefully!) away with his wife; the sister
screaming, tears in eyes; the lover looking on in silence; the
mother's pain; the coworkers staring into space in a moment of
silence. The story continues as her loved ones cope with her death.
They move through life, accepting, moving forward, remembering, and
eventually decades pass. The irony of her death now so unlikely due
to current safety designs, the song ends with her lover, who
eventually moved on with his own life and married to someone more than
a beloved memory. The lyrics are poignantly realistic. Vienna's
compelling vocals draw you out of your emotional shell despite any
resistance you may have. They tantalize your ears with sweet anguish
and beat you with their raw detail so undeterringly that the true
irony of a song about an automobile accident is this: If you're
driving, DO NOT under any circumstances listen to this song. For if
you have any shred of emotional turbulence within you, you will have
trouble seeing the road as the depth of these lyrics reach beneath
your surface and yank on your insides until your eyes blur with tears.

Visually spellbounding through the lulling pull of a delicately strong
vocal supremacy. That's Vienna, in my book.

~nv