Metropolis Shanghai: Showboat to China

by Metropolis Shanghai: Showboat T

Overview

Sometimes a CD comes out of left field to astonish you. Metropolis Shanghai: Showboat to China, which essentially documents Shanghai in the 1930s, is one of them. You don't need words to build up the picture; the music, perfectly chosen and performed by modern artists, does the job. "Ye Shanghai" is a recurrent theme, a bellwether of mood from contentment to despair. Another facet that's exposed is the Jewish settlement in Shanghai, where 20,000 fled from the Nazis in the 1930s (it was the only place in the world they could go without a passport), creating a community with its own music, like "Sehnsucht," which sits easily alongside the Chinese sounds here. The music of piano bars (playing, of course, "Slow Boat to China") mixes with sound effects (the siren is particularly chilling, sounding as it's happening in your living room), and as the Japanese invade, the traditional "Ambushed on All Sides," played on the pipa (a plucked lute) becomes a wild crescendo of desperation, as doom overtakes the city. This is a masterful, vital piece of history. ~ Chris Nickson

Product Details

Release Date:	02/14/2006
Label:	Winter & Winter
UPC:	0025091011124
Rank:	156996

Tracks

1. Ye Shanghai (Shanghai Nights)
2. The Moon Over a Fountain
3. In the French Concession
4. Slow Boat to China
5. Ye Shanghai (Shanghai Nights)
6. Strolling on the Street
7. Raindrops Rattling on the Leaves of Bananas
8. Der Weana Is 'All' Weil Leger
9. In the Hustle of the Bubbling Well Road
10. Sehnsucht
11. Khsidishe Nigunim
12. Dem Rebns Khosid
13. Frisch Gewagt
14. Rozhinkes mit Mandlen
15. Bells and Chants at the Long Hua Temple
16. 1937 Outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War
17. Ye Shanghai (Shanghai Nights)
18. A Japanese Soldier Plays an Old Gramophone
19. Ambush on All Sides
20. Birds Flying Back to the Woods

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Michael Alpert   Fiddle,Guitar,Vocals
Zhou Tao   Pipa
Fumio Yasuda   Piano
Kurt Bjorling   Clarinet
Alan Bern   Piano,Accordion,Musical Direction
Stuart Brotman   Bass,Trombone

Technical Credits

Lori Lorenzen   Mixing,Editing
Adrian von Ripka   Mastering
Mariko Takahashi   Executive Producer
Frank Loesser   Composer
Stefan Winter   Engineer,Producer,Executive Producer
Traditional   Composer
Mischa Spoliansky   Composer
Jacques Offenbach   Composer
Victor Silvester   Performer