[Dixielandjazz] SHANGHAI MIMI

[Jack Mitchell]

A new show, produced by Douglas Hunter, will premiere at the Riverside 
Theatre, Sydney on 10 January, playing until 20 January as part of the 
Sydney Festival.

Hunter was inspired to create this show after hearing, in 2007, an EMI 
CD of a music style called /Shidaiqu, /which is a blend of jazz and 
Chinese folk music.

This CD presented a programme of /Shidaiqu /tracks from//the discovery 
in a warehouse in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) of 800 metal stampers of 
78rpm sides recorded in Shanghai mainly in the thirties.

Given a large population of European and American businessmen and 
service personnel in the twenties and thirties, Shanghai was a swinging 
city, particularly for the expat population. Pianist Teddy Weatherford 
moved to Shanghai in 1926. and was responsible for bringing much jazz 
talent to that city. A band led by American clarinet/ sax player Joe 
Aronson led a band, which included four Australians, for six months at 
the Canidrome in 1934. Aronson's band was followed by Buck Clayton's 
group. Weatherford moved to then Bombay and recorded there during the 
war years.

Apparently the Sydney show will be entertaining but of little interest 
as OKOM. I mention all this because I wonder what was on other stampers 
from that collection.  Surely some real jazz or even hot dance music was 
recorded in Shanghai and would be of historic, if nothing else, 
interest. Even during the Japanese occupation we know dance band music 
was being recorded in Shanghai, and the cabarets remained in operation, 
even if American and English musicians were interned.

Does anyone have any information on those stampers? Anyone have an in 
with EMI to discover the titles recorded, even if not the artists involved?

Best wishes

Jack Mitchell

PS: We shouldn't rubbish the thought of that style of music. 
particularly without hearing it. Today many western jazz musicians, 
admittedly of more modern inclinations than I, are merging with Indian 
traditional music.




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