Marias blogg

Vill bara rekommendera en helt fantastiskt skiva som heter Shanghai Lounge Divas. Det är orginalinspelningar från 1930-talets Shanghai som då var Fjärran Österns Paris. Helt underbar jazz på mandarin. Så ni bloggläsare som gillar kinesiska: Detta är skivan för er!


Long before the concept of "Pacific Rim" united cultures on both sides of the ocean, Shanghai combined popular Chinese and Western trends in a way that earned it the nicknames "Hollywood of the East" and "Paris of Asia". Shanghai was at the cutting edge of China's artistic avant-garde and the center of the nation's recording and motion picture industries, and it was Shanghai's divas who gave voice to this exciting mixture of East and West. Before the communist victory of 1949, they were the ones who made Shanghai swing; and when Shanghai's dance halls were closed, the movie studios nationalized, and its jazz bands banned, many of these divas moved south to the British Crown Colony and helped make Hong Kong the new Hollywood of the East.

The 78rpm discs produced by Shanghai's Pathé recording studio, considered the most modern of the Far East, dominated phonographs from Southeast Asia to the Chinatowns of America and Europe.

In celebrating the 100th Anniversary of EMI in China, EMI Hong Kong had kicked off a number of projects in 2003. One of such was the Shanghai Lounge Divas [originally named: Pathé 100: The Original Shanghai Divas Collection: Redifined], where EMI has commissioned Ian Widgery to remix some of the remarkable songs throughout 1930s to 1950s...

Text from SHANGHAI LOUGE DIVAS: Original 1930's Sessions Remixed for Today [CD insert]

Det är en dubbelskiva och den andra skivan består av minde lyckade mixar av låtarna på den första skivan. Man kan inte få allt.

Sedan har det kommit en nummer två. Även denna skiva spelas flitigt hemma. Den är tyvärr inte lika förtrollande men inte så långt därifrån.