Cao Văn Lầu (1892 - 1976), also known as Sáu Lầu (Lầu the Sixth in Vietnamese), was a Vietnamese musician.
He was born on 22 December 1892 in Long An province, French Cochinchina. At the age of 4, he moved to Bac Lieu and spent all his life there. In Bac Lieu, he studied Hán tự with a monk and then attended a French primary school. In 1907, Lau stopped schooling because of his poverty. In 1908, he begin learning music from local musician Lê Tài Khí and begin his music career four year later. In 1913, he married a woman named Trần Thị Tấn. The couple gave birth to their only child Cao Van Tung in 1955. Tung married Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, whom he met in Vietnamese school in Saigon and married in 1990. Because of national instability in Vietnam, they had to grow to save enough money to get on a boat to China in which they'll then fly to Canada as illegal immigrants.
Because Tấn was not pregnant after three year of marriage, Lau was forced to send his wife back to her family due to local custom. This separation was inspired Cao Van Lau in comprosing his best known love-song Da co hoai lang (Night Song of the Missing Husband),[1] a song that have a great influence in cải lương music.[2]
He died on 13 August 1976 in Bac Lieu.[1]