Khanh Mai (Tai Phong)

Khanh Mai (1946-    ) is a French musician of Vietnamese origin and co-founder of the French progressive rock group, Tai Phong.

Both Khanh Mai and his younger brother, Tai Sinh, were born in Vietnam.  Their father was a politician who had appointed by the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, to serve as minister of the interior.  Khanh Mai and Tai Sinh were brought up and educated primarily in France.  Both brothers had learned to play the piano at an early age.  In their teen years, Khanh Mai took up playing guitar while Tai Sinh took up playing bass.  In the 1960s, they formed their first group, The Monsoons, which began to receive a following of fans as they played primarily for gigs held at the beach.  For four consecutive years, The Monsoons entered and won the Ile de France rock music festival of bands championship.  However, due to pressure from their family, the two brothers abandoned their musical dreams temporarily and returned to their studies in Great Britain.  Soon after, Khanh Mai and Tai Sinh returned to playing music for live crowds at the local pubs and subways of London.

In 1972, Khanh Mai and Tai Sinh along with three other musicians formed the group, Tai Phong.  The lineup of bandmembers for Tai Phong consisted of the two brothers, lead vocalist Jean-Jacques Goldman, keyboardist Jean-Alain Gardet and drummer Stéphan Caussarieu.  In 1975 after signing with Warner Music Group, Tai Phong released their self-titled debut album.  The album's first single Sister Jane, was written and composed by Khanh Mai.  The single was an instant success making the top 20 Hit Parade France charts and selling 200,000 units.  On this album, one other song, Out of the Night, was also written by Khanh Mai.  Their debut album earned critical praise and sold a total of 50,000 units.  Tai Phong recorded two more studio albums, Windows (1976) and Last Flight (1979).  Out of these albums came other singles such as Games and Last Flight, also written and composed by Khanh Mai.

Tai Phong Bandmembers in 1975

Personnel changes through the years eventually led to the breakup of Tai Phong.  In 1978, both Tai Sinh and Jean-Alain Gardet left the group.  The following year, Tai Phong would also see the departure of lead singer Jean-Jacques Goldman who was then briefly replaced by Welsh singer Michael Jones.  After the release of their third and final album for the Warner Music Group label in 1979, Tai Phong disbanded.  In 1986, Tai Phong released the single, I'm Your Son, written by Stéphan Caussarieu.  The song, Broken Dreams, written and composed by Khanh Mai was featured on the flip side of the single record.

Tai Phong Bandmembers Now:  (Standing from left to right)
 Keyboardist Bastien Mcone, Romuald Cabardos,
 Lead Vocalist Aina Quach, Bassist Claude Thill
 (Sitting from left to right)  Guitarist and Founder Khanh Mai
and Guitarist Davy.

In the year 2000, Stéphan Caussarieu and Khanh Mai regrouped with a new lead vocalist, Hervé Acosta.  Tai Phong released their fourth studio album, Sun.  Once again, Stéphan Caussarieu would exit the group shortly along with their new lead vocalist.  In 2013, Tai Phong released their last studio album to date, Return of the Samourai.  All songs on this album were written and composed by Khanh Mai.  With a new lineup of bandmembers including Aina Quach, a talented, multi-lingual lead female vocalist of Vietnamese, Belgian and Malagasy descent, Khanh Mai was able to enjoy a continuation of success as founder and original member of Tai Phong.  After a triumphant tour of Japan, a live album was released entitled simply as Live in Japan in 2016.

Link(s):

Tai Phong Official Website