Cal Tjader ethno ventures

Far East / jazz hybrids were featured here before (see the far east tag), from ShiDaiQu of 40s and 50s to the modern recreations of same by John Huie under the Shanghai Jazz moniker, to the more modern chinese jazz fusion of Coco Zhao. Yet, there were some interesting attempts at cino-jazz by American musicians, as well. One worth checking out is Cal Tjader's Several Shades of Jade. He was a leading exponent of cross-cultural music as the man behind a number of excellent and influential latin jazz albums in the 50s. Here he steps away from latin jazz to explore the eastern music traditions - not just chinese, but also Near East (hear, for example, the Turkish-sounding jangly detuned reeds on The Fakir and Sahib). This 1963 LP is a joint effort between Tjader and Lalo Shifrin, who wrote half the material and did all arrangements. The authenticity here is a bit suspect, although I don't know enough to judge. Nonetheless, the music is engaging and easy on the ears; while it occasionally approaches kitch/easy listening territory, it doesn't really cross the border - which can be said about much of Tjader's work.

AllMusic review

Cal Tjader - Several Shades of Jade (1963)
at Oufar Khan, yorubajazz
1. The Fakir (2:53)
2. Cherry Blossoms (4:59)
3. Borneo (3:45)
4. Tokyo Blues (3:52)
5. Song Of The Yellow River (3:18)
6. Sahib (2:29)
7. China Nights (3:24)
8. Almond Tree (2:58)
9. Hot Sake (3:35)

As a bonus, Tjader's stab at South American music; most of the above applies.
AllMusic review

Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil
With Laurindo Almeida, Paul Horn. arr. by
depositfiles and megaupload via
mediafire, rapidshare pt.1 and pt.2, also in lossless: FLAC
01. Vai Querer (Hianto de Almeida-Fernando Lobo)
02. Qu Tristeza (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
03. Meditao (Antonio Carlos Jobim-Ferreira De Mendonca)
04. So (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
05. Se Tarde, Me Perdoa (Carlos Eduardo Lyra-Ronaldo Boscoli)
06. No Diga Nada (Carlita-Noacy Marcenes)
07. Silenciosa (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
08. Elizete (Clare Fischer)
09. Imagen (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
10. Tentaao do Inconveniente (Augusto Mesquita- Manoel de Conceicao)
11. Preciosa (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
12. Chro e Batuque (Laurindo Almeida)

Zhou Xuan + linkage

Good news for the fans of ShiDaiQu.
Mr. Fung of Bolingo answered my pleas and shared the Zhou Xuan box.


Click the cover to get to Zhou Xuan bio and mediafire links to the bilingually-tagged files. Alternatively, you can get them on rapidshare, tagged in chinese only, here: one, two, three, four, five; booklet scans included.

Secondly, our most excellent contributor of late, Remorseful Prober, has a blog now.

Ambuscade From Ten Sides



More shidaiqu and other far east musical gems, lyric transcriptions/translations, a learned culturological commentary, and all-around coolness. Most of the stuff is either out of print, unavailable from european/american retailers, or both. There is no other place to get this music unless you live in China/Taiwan. Do check it out, add to your favorite RSS reader, download the music and leave a comment.

The subsequent Pathe 100 discs would be shared there! although I will link to new posts.

VA - South Sea Wind (Pathe 100 Vol.8)

An upload by Remorseful Prober.


South Sea Wind (Pathe 100 Vol.8)
Tagged in Chinese on mediafire
Tagged in English on megaupload
1. Xiu Qiong Pan - The Spark in My Heart
2. Xiu Qiong Pan - I Can’t Help But to Ask You
3. Kuang Yu Ling - This Night the Moon is Especially Beautiful
4. Kuang Yu Ling - The Merry Widow Waltz
5. Kuang Yu Ling - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
6. Kuang Yu Ling - Shangri-la
7. Kuang Yu Ling - Mid-Autumn Moon
8. Kuang Yu Ling - I Can’t Forget You
9. Kuang Yu Ling - Don’t Look Back
10. Zhang Lai Lai - A Good Couple
11. Zhang Lai Lai - Dumb as a Baby
12. Zhang Lai Lai - The First Kiss
13. Lan Di - I Love Ballet
14. Lan Di - The Beautiful Youngest Daughter
15. Lan Di - Jealousy
16. Lan Di - Raise Your Head and Look at Me
17. Hua Yi Bao - Dreams
18. Hua Yi Bao - The Phoenix and the Raven
19. Hua Yi Bao - Eastern Mountain Rains, the Western is Clear
20. Hua Yi Bao - Live in Your Heart
21. Hua Yi Bao - Spring Flowers in Autumn

Carrie Koo Mei - Little Skylark (Pathe 100 Vol.14)

An upload and bio translation by Remorseful Prober.

Gu Mei (real name: Gu Jia-Mi, In English- Carrie Ku/Koo Mei) was born in 1934. Nicknamed "Lovebird" in her youth, at the height of her career she was dubbed "Little Skylark". She hails from Suzhou, in Jiangsu province in Southeastern China. In 1949 she moved to Hong Kong and two years later began to perform, landing a role in a Cantonese film "The Second Wife". By the next year she was acting and singing in Mandarin language films; her first song being called "I Don't Want to Be Apart from You".

In the 1950s she was signed to Great World, Big China and Phillips records, and largely remained a second tier actress. 1958 she went to Thailand to promote one of her movies, and she was invited to stay and make films there, where she became fluent in Thai and gained considerable popularity as a singer and actress in Bangkok. After her return to Hong Kong her popularity continued to increase on into the early sixties, as she continued to act, and her voice became familiar through the title songs of popular films ("Mountain Song" and "Dreams" - the latter is track 4 on this disc). Considered primarily a singer with only a few uneven appearances in films, in 1965 she starred in the Shaw Brothers' movie "The Lark" to great success and acclaim for both her singing and acting.

In 1969 she found herself free of all contracts, and she moved to Taiwan. There she began to host a variety show, "Everyday a Star" on TV. In 1971 she released her final record, a collaborative album with Chen Fen-Lan, another famous singer at the time in Taiwan. Her final movie was a Taiwanese ghost film, "The Bride From Hell". From that time on, she has neither sang nor acted, but instead started to paint. She has had many exhibitions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, America and Canada. In 1977 she received an award from the Hong Kong Museum of Fine Arts. In May 1998, having not performed in 27 years, she sang as a favor for her brother at one of his concerts. She currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.

A bit more at the Soft Film blog.


Tagged in Chinese on mediafire
Tagged in English on sharebee
1. The Lady of Mount Ali
2. The Little Skylark
3. The Wandering Eye
4. Dreams
5. Red Lychees
6. The Girl Over There
7. Old Dreams are Hard to Find
8. Light Smoke and Dense Fog
9. A Dream of Love
10. A Slow Smile
11. Remembering Our Youth
12. Goodbye, Lover
13. Because I Have You
14. A Bitter Cup
15. Don’t Waver Again
16. Innumerable Flowers (1)
17. Innumerable Flowers (2)
18. Long-Odds Love
19. Mother, Where are You?
20. Looking for Love
21. I Await You Alone

Grace Chang - Pathe 100 Vol.15

An upload and liner notes translation by Remorseful Prober.

Grace Zhang (Ge Lan, real name Zhang Yu-Fang) was born in the city of Haining in Zhejiang province, and grew up in Shanghai. She immigrated to Hong Kong with her family in 1949. In 1952 she passed a screen test for the Taishan movie company, and dropped out of school to star in the movies. Her screen name Ge Lan comes from the English name Grace, selected by a studio director. In this year she starred in her first movie, "Love in Spring" which was shown in Singapore in 1953. By 1957, after starring and co-starring in several more movies her popularity soared, and she was considered for a brief time the queen of musicals. In 1959 she was invited by NBC to sing on US television, on the Dinah Shore show. She was married to a wealthy businessman in London in 1961, and then retired in 1964, having starred in over thirty movies.
Between 1950 and 1960 she made records for the Bai-Dai label, the most popular being, "I love the Cha-Cha", "Carmen", "I Want Your Love" and "I Want to Fly in the Blue Sky." In 1973 she began to study Beijing Opera, and when the state-sponsored Beijing Opera Troupe visited Hong Kong in 1979 she was allowed to perform one song with them, a considerable honor. In 1989 she recorded an album of famous songs of the Chinese Opera. In 1994 she performed in an a-capella commerative concert for the 100th birthday of one of Beijing's most famous opera performers, Mei Lan-Fang. In retirement, she continues to make occasional appearances.


This collection by Grace Chang is doubly different from the previous Pathe 100 discs. The singers featured before started in the Shanghai nightclubs and dancehalls and moved away from the mainland after 1950. While Grace Chang grew up in Shanghai, she began her career in Hong Kong. I think this is reflected in a more pronounced Western influence in her music. Secondly, the performers so far were singers first, and except for Zhou Xuan, appeared in the movies mostly in cameo roles or solely on the soundtrack. Grace Chang was foremost an actress, although she starred in musicals. The Soft Film blog has several posts with clips from her movies, promo photos etc. Make sure to check out her version of Carmen (Habanera) - strumming (pretending to strum) a National Tricone, no less!



Tagged in Chinese on mediafire
Tagged in English on sharebee
1. I Want Your Love (I Want You to Be My Baby)
2. What Do You Want
3. Moonless Night
4. Beautiful Taiwan
5. Carmen
6. Butterfly Lovers
7. Love in the Countryside
8. Good Tidings Come to the Door
9. World of Shadows
10. How Can I be Without Him?
11. Unspoken Joy
12. Beautiful Dancing
13. Suddenly I See Him
14. The Hula Hula Twist
15. Girl Soldier
16. Love Blossoming Everywhere
17. Marriage as a Cold War
18. Barroom Angel
19. Crazy in Love (literal: Love Sounds Like “Ding-Dong”)
20. Moonlight Love
21. Can’t Deny the Heart

Pathe 100 Vol.3 - Yao Li

Another share by Remorseful Prober.
A compilation of songs by Yao Li (Yao Lee) [Bio at Wiki]. She first rose to popularity in Mainland China, singing in a Shanghainese dance hall style. Her brother Yao Min was also a successfull pop singer, and they often recorded as a duo. She was a rival of Zhou Xuan, and had a stage name of "Silver Voice" in counterpart to Zhou Xuan - "Golden Voice". After the revolution she fled to Hong Kong where she continued to record, her songs featured prominently in many movies.

Yao Li’s voice changed with time. Her initial success in Shanghai was partially indebted to the techniques and vocal training of Russian diaspora court musicians. In the 1940s, Yao Min asked her to imitate black singers from Hollywood films that were easily available in Shanghai. Her voice thus became lower and thicker, full of jazz’s lyricism. In the 1950s, however, she began to fall in love with the voice of Patti Page and developed a new hybrid style based on jazz and country music. @

This disc is most notable for inclusion of the original version of "Rose, Rose, I Love You", possibly the only China-to-America crossover hit ever.

"Rose, Rose, I Love You" comes from the 1940 film A Pitiful Singing Girl. The music and words were written by Chen Gexin and Wu Cun respectively. The singer of the song, Yao Li, played a minor part as a singer in the film. It proved to be an instant hit. This very same song was also the first Chinese song to be adapted with English words, to win international fame. It was the famous American singer Frankie Laine who sang the English version, which made its way to the top of the American popular song chart in the early 1950s. As time passed, many Chinese people came to mistake the Chinese version for an adaptation from the English version. The liveliness and high spirits of the music, the clever blending of Chinese tunes into a cosmopolitan style, were probably the reasons for its popularity all over the world. @

This song is also featured on the Remixed and Restored Vol.1 CD by Shanghai Restoration Project.


Tagged in English on sharebee
Tagged in Chinese on mediafire
1. Catching Lovesickness
2. Susan
3. Rose, Rose, I Love You
4. Lovers With The Same Fate
5. Don’t Hesitate
6. Little Brother
7. Keep Silent
8. Ay-ya-ya
9. I Don’t Want You
10. Little Shepard
11. Riding a Bicycle in Spring
12. Wasting Your Youth
13. The Riverside in Suzhou
14. Long Distance Love
15. Don’t Say No
16. Looking for a Trace of You in the Moonlight
17. Happy Youth
18. What Kind of World is This?
19. What is Love?
20. Golden Oriole Flying
21. Fantasy
22. Red Lights and Green Booze

Pathe 100 Vols. 10 & 16

More shares by RP


Pathe 100 Vol.16 - Rou Yun, Jing Ting, Yu Fei
Tagged in Chinese on mediafire, pt.1 and pt.2
Tagged in English on megaupload
1. Rou Yun - Diamond Flower
2. Jing Ting - Sun Song
3. Rou Yun - Red Sails in the Sunset
4. Yu Fei - Dream of My Hometown
5. Yu Fei - Memory of the Sea Shore
6. Rou Yun - Point of the Temple
7. Jing Ting - Matchmaker
8. Rou Yun - My Faithless Lover
9. Jing Ting - The Mountain Laughs at Me
10. Yu Fei - Follow You
11. Jing Ting - Comforting Conversation
12. Yu Fei - Love Too Late
13. Yu Fei - Awaiting My Lover's Return
14. Yu Fei - Knitting Girl
15. Rou Yun - Beautiful Garden
16. Yu Fei - Pin a Flower on Your Shirt
17. Jing Ting - Reminiscing At the Riverside
18. Rou Yun - Last Night I Couldn't Sleep Because of You
19. Jing Ting - If You Love Me Just Tell Me
20. Jing Ting - Equal to Zero
21. Yu Fei - Peach Flowers Blooming



Pathe 100 Vol.10 - Xia Dan (Hsia Tan) and Liu Yun
Tagged in Chinese on mediafire pt.1 and pt.2
Tagged in English on megaupload
1. Xia Dan - Spring in the Mountains
2. Xia Dan - Voices in the Valley
3. Xia Dan - Selling the Newspaper
4. Xia Dan and Jiang Hong - Picking Water Chestnuts
5. Xia Dan - I Can't Understand
6. Xia Dan - Stunned by the Splendor
7. Xia Dan - Steel Needle Dance
8. Xia Dan and Jiang Hong - Miss Rita
9. Xia Dan - Happy Song
10. Xia Dan - Nine Out of Ten Windows Opened
11. Xia Dan - Happy Home
12. Xia Dan - Just to Talk with You
13. Xia Dan and Yang Guang - Where's My Love?
14. Liu Yun - Little White Boat (Korean Folk Song)
15. Liu Yun - Feeding Chickens
16. Liu Yun - Sunshine
17. Liu Yun and Jiang Hong - The Girl at the Bar
18. Liu Yun - Bang the Drums
19. Liu Yun - Add a Little More (Love Me A Bit More)
20. Liu Yun - Carefree Morning
21. Liu Yun - Silly Girl
22. Liu Yun - A Fortnight

Pathe 100 Vol.20 - Hong Kong At Night

A share by RP.


Pathe 100 Vol.20 - Hong Kong At Night
Tagged in Chinese on mediafire pt.1 and pt.2
Tagged in English on 4shared
1. Yang Ping (Liang Ping) - Hong Kong at Night
2. Li Jing-Jie - Half as Much
3. Rou Yun - Tranquil Night's Reminiscence
4. Wei Xiu-Xian - Southern Country Night Song
5. Ye Feng - Clouds at Sunset
6. Ye Feng - Spring Night Complaint
7. Ye Feng - Street Lamps on a Winter's Night
8. Bei Lei - Happiness in the Wind and Rain
9. Liu Yun - Wishing All Day
10. Huang Ling - Deep Dark Night
11. Pan Di-Hua (Rebecca Pan) - Midnight Kiss
12. Chui Ping - Last Night's Dream
13. Fang Yi-Hua (Mona Fong) - Got Drunk Last Night
14. Gu Mei - Lonely Night
15. Gu Mei - Every Lonely Night
16. Jing Ting - Flowers in the Rainy Night
17. Jing Ting - I Won't Cry Again Tonight
18. Zhang Lu - One Little Bird Calling in the Night
19. Zhen Xiu-Yi - Cold Nights are the Most Miserable
20. Pan Xiu-Qiong and Sow Keng Poon - Midnight Guitar

Those who liked the Shanghai Lounge Divas' remixes better than the originals should check out the Shanghai Restoration Project, a neolounge/downtempo electronic project with a cross-cultural approach similar to that of Ian Widgery. A few albums can be heard at the jbums; I haven't heard Remixed and Restored Vol.1, but it seems very interesting.

Zhou Xuan (Chou Hsuan)

Another excellent share by Remorseful Prober.
Zhou Xuan is truly the jewel of Shidaiqu, a singer and movie star of singular talent, who has been compared to Edit Piaf and Billie Holiday, both for her expressive singing and for tragic personal life.
For a bio I would refer you to Wiki and to an article in The Chinese Mirror. They give contradicting versions of the origin of her stage name, though. There is also a japanese fan page.

If anyone has access to the 5CD Zhou Xuan box (this one), please share!!!


Pathé 100: The Series Vol.13
130mb
REUP: on depositfiles
1. Picking Betel Nuts
2. Missing My Husband
3. A Lover's Knot
4. Sweet Love
5. Women
6. The Flowers Bloom, I Await My Love
7. Four Seasons of Heartache pt 1
8. Four Seasons of Heartache pt 2
9. Silver Flowers Flying
10. Blossoming Lotus
11. Many Things I Hate
12. Autumn Wind
13. Little Stream
14. When Will We Meet Again
15. Butterflies
16. South Wind Blowing
17. The Flavor of Yearning
18. Let Me Look at You
19. The Peach Flowers of Longhua
20. Seeing My Brother Off
21. Tell Me

Here's another one via AvaxHome:

Shanghai's "Golden Throat" Zhou Xuan (1918-1957) - Sound Treasure Collected
Rapidshare pt.1 and pt.2
01. 天涯歌女 (A wandering songstress)
02. 四季歌 (A song of four seasons)
03. 襟上一朵花 (A flower on my chest)
04. 五月的风 (Wind in May)
05. 采槟榔 (Gather bethel nuts)
06. 银花飞 (Silver flowers are flying)
07. 拷红 (Interrogating Red Maid)
08. 卖杂货 (Selling sundry goods)
09. 龙华的桃花 (Peach blossoms in LongHua)
10. 花样的年华 (One's young life like a flower)
11. 想郎 (Longing for her lover)
12. 难民歌 (Refugees' song)
13. 永远的微笑 (Smile forever)
14. 黄叶舞秋风 (Yellow leaves danced in autumn wind)
15. 葬花 (Bury fallen flowers)
16. 月圆花好 (Full moon and blooming flowers)
17. 莫负青春 (Don't fail youth)
18. 夜上海 (Shanghai's night)

P.S. Thanks to everyone who comments, I do appreciate additional info, translations etc.

Pathé 100: The Series

A guest upload by Remorseful Prober, this one might be the most interesting one in the history of this blog.

The first decades of the XXth century were a time of upheaval around the world - politically, technologically, and culturally. It was the Jazz Age in the States, the era of dramatic literary experimentation in Russia, explosion of modernity in european culture... China, though walking its own historical path, did not stay behind. The opium wars and european political meddling throughout the previous century cracked the empire open, and the seeds of foreign culture that came through the cracks gave their first shoots in the 1920s. Shanghai, the most prosperous and open city of the time, saw the emergence of shidaiqu - a fusion of Chinese folk music and European jazz.
Pathé Records was the record label dominating asian market at the time. Throughout the next decades, Pathé documented the development of this new music. The revolution of 1949 effectively ended Pathé activities on mainland, so the label continued operating from Hong Kong. It's been taken over first by Columbia, and then by EMI. Recently, Pathé started a retrospective called Pathé 100: The Series and dedicated to the the glory days of shidaiqu - 30s, 40s, 50s. The Shanghai Lounge Divas albums (here) introduced the style; other discs from the series are dedicated to individual performers or are topical. The next few posts will feature several albums from the series, all shared by Remorseful Prober.

The first one is by the Loo sisters - Chang Loo (AKA Zhang Lu), a singer and a movie star, deceased earlier this year at the age of 77, and her less famous sister Xiao Loo. This disc might be a good intro to chinese pop for the wary, as it includes several covers of american songs, including Merle Travis' 16 Tons and Oh Susanna, complete with a banjo solo. I guess she had a thing for country'n'western; she also did a cover of Hank Williams' Jambalaya, hear it here.


Vol.1: Zhang Lu and Xiao Lu
135mb
Tagged in Chinese, on mediafire pt.1 and pt.2
Tagged in English, on megaupload, translation by RP.
1. Spring Flowers
2. Where the Fish Are
3. I Hear Music and See the Lover's Shadows
4. Little Mottled Dog
5. Blue Tango
6. Mambo Italiano
7. 16 Tons (the Chinese Translation is "Patiently Waiting")
8. Hu-La-La-Yi
9. Tonight
10. Little Wooden Horse
11. Chinese Mambo
12. Lover's Snare
13. Oh Susanna (A Banjo on my Knee)
14. Golden Palace Dance
15. Happiness and Tranquility
16. Evergreens
17. A Woman's Lament
18. Open the Bottle
19. Song for a Cold Night
20. Red Pomegranates
21. Raindrops
22. Sister's Sowing Her Boyfriend's Wallet
23. A Cold and Snowy Day

No info on this one.

Vol.2: Fong Jing-Yin AKA Fang Tsin Ying
127mb
Tagged in English on megaupload or mediafire
1. A Young Girl's Dream
2. Dragon Lamps and Kites
3. Wait for Me Darling
4. Asking for Trouble
5. Buying Dumpling Soup
6. It's Good to be Young
7. Wonderful Spring
8. Wake Up!
9. Strict Father
10. Crazy Fun
11. On the Mountain Road
12. Hey Mr. Guitar
13. Silver Star
14. Come quickly to See Me
15. Ya Ya Ya Cha Cha Cha
16. Phoenixes Flying
17. Ya Cha Cha
18. Round and Round
19. Dangers of the Wandering Heart
20. Life on the Installment Plan
21. A Glass of Wine
22. Carrying Goods to Market
23. My Little Lover

Linkage

A contribution by DayGloJoe, who correctly judged that I would find this album interesting, and so would the readers of this blog.

The actual title of this comp is Ryukyu Rare Groove: Shimauta Pops in 60's-70's, but it is also sold by the non-japanese-speaking retailers as Okinawan Groove Collection. Here's a review by Mikey IQ Jones:
A fantastic collection of wonderful, chameleonic Okinawan pop music from the 1960s & '70s, Shimauta Pops showcases brilliant early examples of the collusionist aesthetic that makes Okinawan pop so much fun while being rather forward-thinking in approach. Featuring tracks by the Hoptones, Four Sisters, Yara Family, and Aiko Yohen (though unfortunately none of the info is translated into English), this disc shows the artists fusing traditional Okinawan island melodies and instrumentation with more "modern" western styles -- R'n'B, bossa, Tin Pan Alley, even some wild banjo/fiddle hootenanies! -- though in all honesty what is achieved here proves to be rather modern in itself while maintaining that gorgeous nostalgic questing tone that I love so much in the melodies. The final product often sounds like a much less frenetic cousin to Indian "Bollywood" film music, and as testament to their true pop nature, many of the songs are as infectious as influenza. The overall sound had a BIG influence on Haroumi Hosono (fresh out of Happy End but not yet on his way to Yellow Magic Orchestra) and his excellent mid-'70s trilogy of "tropical" albums -- Tropical Dandy, Bon Voyage Co, and Paraiso -- with shamisens and shakuhachis backed at times by New Orleans or Detroit Soul rhythm sections, steel pans and vibes, and doo-wop harmonies... track 7 even features a shamisen/Moog duet with primitive drum machines plonking away in the back! Overall, this is beautiful, innovative, and best of all, totally fun. Any record that simultaneously makes your head spin and your butt shake gets top marks in my book!


224kbps, 42mb on rapidshare
Unfortunately, the song titles and artists' listing are only in Japanese. See comments for the tracklist.

Some time ago, Solepower left a comment searching for Ernest Ranglin's album Sound and Power. The only copy circulating on the internets is a low-quality vinyl rip that's much shorter than the subsequent CD reissue. Solepower was able to find a better quality complete CD rip and posted it on his blog, here.
You can't go wrong with a Ranglin album!


1. Major Walk
2. Mix Master
3. Sound and Power
4. More Stars
5. West of the Sun
6. Black Man's Train
7. Psychedelic Rock
8. Ranglin Doddlin
9. Mama Top
10. So We Call It
11. Lee Arab
12. Jericho Rocking
13. Less Problem
14. Black Eyed Peas
15. These Eyes
16. Still Water
17. Now

John Huie and the Clear Wind Band - Shanghai Jazz 2

Another excellent disc from John Huie with the Clear Wind Band, the first one is here. Great swing jazz with some chinese folk instruments. A few of the tunes appeared on this blog before: The Pretender and Waiting For You to Come Back (AKA Waiting 4 U) were on the Shanghai Lounge Divas comp, and That Rhythm Man is better known as Reefer Man, and found here.

All thanks go to the original uploader, Shean Chin!


John Huie and the Clear Wind Band - Shanghai Jazz 2
REUP 11/11/14: High VBR, 110mb on zippyshare or uloz.to
1. Shan Hai Yao Bai - The Shanghai Shuffle
2. Kan Zhe Wo - Look At Me
3. Ni De Ta - Your Man
4. Jia Zheng Jing - Pretender
5. Nao Ren De Ye Yu - Rain Song
6. Qie Ting Wo Shuo - Listen to Me
7. Na Zou Jie Pai De Ren - That Rhythm Man
8. Deng Zhe Ni Hui Lai - Waiting for You to Come Back
9. Shang Hai LIL - Shanghai LIL
10. Mei Gui Mei Gui Wo Ai Ni - Mei Gui Mei Gui Wo Ai Ni
11. Zai Na Yao Yuan De Di Fang - Far in the Distance
12. Lao Cha Guan - The Old Tea House
13. Gei Wo Yi Ge Wen - Give Me A Kiss
14. Qing Ren De Yan Lei - Lovers' Tears

Shanghai Jazz: Musical Seductions From China's Age Of Decadence

John Huie is an Australian musician and arranger that has spent some considerable time in Hong Kong and China researching various world music styles, including fi lm soundtracks for Golden Harvest and also a commemorative piece for the 1997 handover. Now based in Shanghai, he has put together a crack band of local musicians to recreate many of the 1930’s jazz songs that were the soundtrack to the city in its pre-war heyday. "Shanghai Jazz – Musical Seductions From China’s Age of Decadence" is the sublime result.
Putting together a band from todays top jazz venues, including sourcing and drinking down at Mao Ming Lu, Huie’s state of the art production and modern recording techniques – not to mention a crack band comprising some of Shanghais best young musicians on bass, clarinet, bass clarinet, drums, guitar, piano, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, pipa, violin and the lovely singing trio of Coco, Carrie and Ginger, the band run through a selection of some of Shanghai's top tunes of the period. Jazz was banned by communists after the revolution, and is only now making a comeback – as are some of the standards of the day – including the notorious "Prostitute Song (The Love You Can’t Get)" that was high on the list of the governments most undesirable music and one of the best known songs of the dance hall era. With the CD’s packaging in English and Chinese (with lyric translations of the Shanghai classics), this is an ideal and very welcome exploration into the world of big band jazz, Shanghai style, and hopefully marks the beginning of a return for one of the more exotic blends of jazz ever to come out of the horn of a blues trumpet. Superb and thoroughly recommended. @

Also, http://www.shjazz.com/ - a website for this project, with song annotations and the musicians' bios.

A review from JazzNews

Note: Coco Zhao, who sings on some selections here, was featured on this blog before.


Shanghai Jazz: Musical Seductions From China's Age Of Decadence
VBR, 66mb
REUP: depositfiles
1. The Love You Can Not Get (Ginger Zheng Zhi Xiao)
2. Give Me A Kiss (Coco Zhao Ke)
3. The Cocktail Song (Carrie Zhang Le)
4. The Song You Are Hearing (Rebecca Tu)
5. It Is Not Too Late (Rebecca Tu)
6. Magic Love (Coco Zhao Ke)
7. Avalon (Instro)
8. Let Us Love Tonight (Coco Zhao Ke)
9. Night In Shanghai (Instro)
10. Jasmine Flower (Carrie Zhang Le)
11. I Want Your Love (Coco Zhao Ke)
12. Lovers Tears (Carrie Zhang Le)

Shanghai Lounge Divas 2

A follow-up to the Shanghai Lounge Divas post. A reader pointed out that there are two volumes with 2CDs each; I posted the first one, but included covers for both. Now, thanks to wonderful Baikinange from Schadenfreudian Therapy blog, I can direct you to the second volume.


192kbps
Originals, 71mb.
Remixes, 85mb.
Shanghai Lounge Divas 2: CD1 - Original 1930's Sessions Remixed For Today
1. Overture - About Shanghai…
2. Cui Ping - This Precious Night
3. Ou Yang Fei Ying - Shangri-La
4. Woo Ing Ing - Love From Far Away
5. Li Xiang Lan - Three Years
6. Poon Sow Keng - Lover's Tears
7. Koo Mei - Along The River Of Love
8. Bai Kwong - Without You
9. Gong Qiu Xia - You In My Dream
10. Mona Fong - The Blue and The Black
11. Yao Lee - Rose Rose I Love You
12. Grace Chang - I Want Your Love
13. Chang Loo - Give Me A Kiss

Shanghai Lounge Divas 2: CD2 - The Original Recordings
1. Cui Ping - This Precious Night
2. Ou Yang Fei Ying - Shangri-La
3. Woo Ing Ing - Love From Far Away
4. Li Xiang Lan - Three Years
5. Poon Sow Keng - Lover's Tears
6. Koo Mei - Along The River Of Love
7. Bai Kwong - Without You
8. Gong Qiu Xia - You In My Dream
9. Mona Fong - The Blue and The Black
10. Yao Lee - Rose Rose I Love You
11. Grace Chang - I Want Your Love
12. Chang Loo - Give Me A Kiss
13. Chow Hsuan - Blossoms Under The Full Moon
14. Yao Lee - The Spring Breeze Kisses My Face
15. Koo Mei - Love Without End
16. Bai Hung - Intoxicating Lip Rouge
17. Woo Ing Ing - Beautiful Spring Night
18. Chow Hsuan - Eternal Smile

Coco Zhao - Dream Situation

Chinese vocal jazz.
I read about Coco Zhao some time ago and was trying to find him online since. He's too damn rare, though - it took me a few months!
The reviews characterize his vocal style as "a boy Billy Holiday". The music is rooted both in chinese classical opera and in western jazz tradition; the repertoire is drawn from the chinese standards of the 40s and 50s, kinda like the stuff on The Shanghai Lounge Divas - but with a more modern sound. Interesting, worth checking out. My wife loved it.

Two reviews from allaboutjazz.com: one and two.
Audio interview and some free song downloads from NPR here.


Coco Zhao - Dream Situation
320 kbps, 88mb on zippyshare or uloz.to
1. Full Moon, Blooming Flowers
2. I Have a Tale
3. Unavailable Love
4. Yearming
5. I Want Your Love
6. Dream Situation
7. Waiting
8. If Without You
9. Three Years

Coco Zhao and Possicobilities
Coco Zhao: vocals
Peng Fei: clavier, keyboard, violin
Huang Jianyi: piano
E.J. Parker: bass
Chris Trzinski: drums

Gamelan

In the annotation to Tibetan chants and Central African folk songs I said that this music appeals to a certain kind of aesthetic perception. It is interesting for the same qualities that make a lot of modern electronic music interesting, as well as stuff like Faust, Riley, et cetera: not as a pop song, but as a richly textured sound painting.
The same applies to indonesian gamelan music (1, 2): if Gbaya is proto-minimal techno, then gamelan is proto-ambient.
Unfortunately, I don't like ambient, and I did not become a gamelan fan. This is a case when "giving it a chance" did not quite work. Maybe I just don't have the right kind of aesthetic perception. Still, it's interesting, and the links are below.


Java Sunda Country - The Art of the Gamelan Degung
zippyshare or uloz.to
1. Catrik
2. Sangku ratu
3. Lalayaran
4. Renggong buyut
5. Pajajaran
6. Jipang Lontang, Beber Layar
7. Lengser Midang
8. Purbasaka
9. Jipang Parwa
10. Maya Selas
11. Ujung Laut
12. Karang ulun



This is the one recorded in 1972 at the court performance. You can hear the birds chirping. Read about it at wiki.
Javanese Court Gamelan
zippyshare or uloz.to
1. Ketawang Puspawarna – 4:46
2. Gending Tejanata / Ladrang Sembawa / Ladrang Playon – 18:28
3. Gending Mandulpati / Ladrang Agun-Agun – 19:40
4. Bubaran Hudan Mas – 2:07



Suara Parahiangan - Degung Sabilulungan
This is more modern-sounding, ethno-pop-like.
zippyshare or uloz.to
1. Sabilulungan (5.35)
2. Karedok Leunca (5.57)
3. Colenak (6.21)
4. Dikantun Tugas (6.05)
5. Ayun Ambing (5.35)
6. Ngantosan (6.18)
7. Karatagan Pahlawan (6.17)
8. B A N D U N G (5.45)
9. Karatagan Pemuda Indonesia (5.45)
10. Mojang Desa (5.37)


Lestari - The Hood Collection. Early Field Recordings From Java
320kbps
zippyshare or uloz.to
01. Lagon Tlutur (slendro pathet manyura)
02. Ladrang Asmarandana (slendro pathet manyura)
03. Jineman Uler Kambang (slendro pathet sanga)
04. Ketawang Tarupala (slendro pathet manyura)
05. Budak Ceurik
06. Ketawang Langen Gita Srinarendra (pelog pathet barang)
07. Kidung
08. Ladrang Kandamanyura (slendro pathet manyura)
09. Bandjaran
10. Gendhing Rambu (pelog pathet lima)

Shanghai Lounge Divas Vol. 1

In 2003 the global music company EMI was clearing out an old warehouse in Mumbai, India in preparation for its demolition. EMI had been there since the 1920s when it manufactured and distributed records under the Pathe label. In the warehouse, workmen unearthed a trunk with Chinese writing on it and inside were the mother shells of about 800 songs from the thirties and forties. These were the reels used to press the stamper that produced the old vinyl 78s [...] Music as unique as the city in its golden era, a mixture of Eastern and Western influences, blues, jazz, traditional Chinese opera and folk music. Read more


Shanghai Lounge Divas, CD1 - The Remixes
320kbps, 150 mb
zippyshare
1. Plum Blossom – Li Xiang-lan
2. Waiting 4 U – Bai Kwong
3. If Only… - Li Xiang-lan
4. Stop Singing – Chow Hsuan
5. The Pretender – Bai Kwong
6. All the Stars in the Sky – Chang Loo
7. This Love is Not for Me – Yao Lee
8. Listen Up – Bai Hong
9. Autumn Evening – Bai Kwong
10. The Wandering Songstress – Chow Hsuan
11. The Plough Song – Chang Loo
12. Ye Shanghai – Chow Hsuan

Shanghai Lounge Divas, CD2 - The Originals
320 kbps, 160 mb
depositfiles
1. Plum Blossom – Li Xiang-lan
2. Waiting 4 U – Bai Kwong
3. If Only… - Li Xiang-lan
4. Stop Singing - Chow Hsuan
5. The Pretender – Bai Kwong
6. All the Stars in the Sky – Chang Loo
7. This Love is Not for Me – Yao Lee
8. Listen Up – Bai Hong
9. Autumn Evening – Bai Kwong
10. The Wandering Songstress – Chow Hsuan
11. The Plough Song – Chang Loo
12. Ye Shanghai 2003 – Chow Hsuan
13. Longing for You – Gong Chio-xia
14. Lingering Love – Man Ping
15. Shangri-La – OuYoung Fei-ying
16. Shanghai Miss – Zhang Yi-wen
17. Love that’s Gone – Gu Ying
18. Song of the Fisherman – Wang Ren-mei
19. Harmonious Couple - Lang Yu-xiu
20. Hundred Birds – Li Li-hua/Yan Hua
21. Fallen Petals – Lu Min
22. Heavenly Spring Dream – Lu Ming
23. The Blossom Youth - Chow Hsuan
24. The Night Is Too Beautiful To Last – Pei Ni

Korea: San Ul Lim - Best Of + Shin Joong Hyun & The Men

Two albums of Korean psychedelic rock - does it get more obscure than that? I've heard them on the third, and possibly the best, disc from the Love Peace and Poetry series, entitled "Asian Psychedelic Rock".

The first album is at À bientôt j'espère - a good blog with few, but very intriguing postings.
San Ul Lim started as an amateur college band, but gradually evolved into a flagship Korean psychedelic group. The best from that 60's sound - fuzz guitars, organ, melodic bass - fertilized by the Far Eastern melodic sense. A truly unusual and beautiful music.
San Ul Lim - Best Of (AKA Dragon Records compilation), 140mb on mediafire.
01 It was probably late summer
02 Narrow alleys
03 My soul lies on silk
04 A flower has bloomed
05 The day the white flower bloom
06 When I don't say anything
07 There is nobody there at night
08 Such a joy (Demo version)
09 You are already me
10 Jingle bells
11 An island without a name
12 Can't forget
13 Red ballooon
14 T.V. ending
15 There San Ul Lim
16 Afternoon (unreleased)

The second one is from Cities on Flame with Rock'n'roll, a most excellent blog with a variety of great and obscure sounds, whose owner, Dirk, is now battling with cancer.
Shin Joong Hyun is the Korean psychedelic guitar god, and this collection presents three of his lengthy mind-warping excursions.
Shin Joong Hyun & The Men
High VBR, on mediafire.
1. Beautiful Country
2. It's A Lie
3. A Woman In The Mist