now that addy has unwrapped her presents i can finally talk about the original shanghai divas redefined by ian widgery, which was one of the the albums i got her. when i went out i was looking for some original 1930ish zhou xuan recordings for her - but how could i resist also buying this, with its gorgeous cover of zhou xuan, bai guang, and every single other great singing sensations of my grandmother's time? the salesgirl couldn't tell me if this was an original collection remastered, or a collection of covers, and wouldn't let me test it, but promised i could return it if there weren't vocals on it, so i went home and stuck it in the cd player. i was slightly alarmed by the arrangement - afterall, the cover gave absolutely no clue to where widgery was going with his "redefinition" - but then the vocals came on and - woohoo - that was bai guang alright! so anyway i sat down and listened to it and what it is, actually, is a modern (well, mostly techno) remix of the hits of the 30s and 40s, and although some of them i wasn't comfortable with, i really enjoyed some of them - tian ya ge nu sounded surprisingly good updated!!

and i was also fairly impressed by widgery's very accessible, informative introduction to each singer, and his commentary on shanghaiese music of the era - they're in english, which is also a surprise, for non-sinophones interested in early shanghaiese music, there isn't much information you will find in english, as addy found when she was writing her thesis...

so, people, listen out for the the shanghai divas redefined - at addy's on the 27th....