Few people know that harmonica player Tong Son who has played this musical instrument across the country for over 50 years is leading a difficult life at his home in HCMC.

The 87-year-old artist is both playing harmonica and drinking beer

Son and two of his friends, saxophonist Huynh Hoa and jazz drummer Huynh Hiep, have staged a huge number of performances nationwide. 

However, since the death of Huynh Hiep and Huynh Hoa, Son has performed alone on stage as the No. 1 harmonica player in the country.  

Audiences might be familiar with his sounds via popular Vietnamese songs like Ha trang by Trinh Cong Son, Dem dong by Nguyen Van Thuong, Toi dua em sang song by Y Vu – Nhat Ngan and Xom dem by Pham Dinh Chuong, and foreign songs like Green Field and Besame Mucho.

Tong Son has a suitcase with 21 kinds of harmonica of different shapes.

Tong Son was born Duong Ngo Tong in 1930 in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long. His stage name is a combination of his father’s name Son and his own name Tong.

He said he came to playing harmonica by chance. When he was a teenager at the age of 15 or 16, his village was raided by French soldiers. 

After the raid, Tong Son accidentally collected a harmonica on the ground and started to get basic harmonica lessons from his uncle.

In 1950, he came to Saigon to work in a printing house and started playing harmonica every night to beat his homesickness. 

He never thought of becoming an artist but thanks to a great encouragement from his friends, he kept learning and practicing harmonica. Then, he passed a contest of the French-Asia radio station which was searching for musical players and singers and took up this professional career.

To enrich his performance, Son created unique tricks like playing harmonica and eating banana or playing harmonica by nose or both playing and drinking beer.

“With 65 years on stage, I think I'm the one who has eaten the most bananas in Vietnam because he often has five bananas per show and there are five shows per day,” the 87-year-old said.

The Vietnam Book of Records has acknowledged Son as the unique harmonica performer in Vietnam.

After the glory of his career, Son has been living alone in a small rented house at 128 Ban Co Street in District 3, HCMC. He can’t afford the monthly rent of VND3.5 million as he has had fewer shows since the beginning of this year.

Recently, The V Show in HCMC’s District 3 held a show to raise funds for Tong Son and received active support from local artists and viewers.

Son said he had used his last penny for electricity and water bills. He has also sought to move to a nursing home for city artists. 

His wish is to live near other veteran artists during his last days. “I worry about my future with no place to go.”

SGT