Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 23rd Apr 2019

CHINESE

Zhou Xuan singing jazz influenced 'Mandopop' is your feature artist on this week's Phantom Dancer with Greg Poppleton. The best of China's 'Seven Great Singers', you'll hear her in three Pathe recordings she made in Hong Kong in 1994 and 1946, including the song that became Shanghai's unofficial anthem before 1949, 'Ye Shanghai'. See the full Phantom Dancer play list below of swing and jazz mixed by Greg Poppleton from live 1920s-60s radio below.

PHANTOM DANCER

This week's Phantom Dancer will be online right after the 23 April 2SER live mix at 2ser.com. Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney

ZHOU XUAN

whose name is also romanised as Chow Hsien was an international diva popular from Shanghai to Singapore. She was China's top singing movie star with a life full of professional triumphs and personal tragedies. She was in over 40 movies and recorded more than 200 songs. She was the illegitimate and abandoned child of a Buddhist nun and raised by an opium addicted foster father who was about to sell her to a brothel at age 13 when fate led her to join Li Jinhui's Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe.

GOLDEN VOICE

When she was fourteen, she won second prize in a singing contest in Shanghai and was given the nickname "Golden Voice" (金嗓子) for her effortless high-pitched melodies.

ANGELS OF THE STREETS

The 1920s-1930s were a time of change in Chinese music when traditional opera and folk music melded with jazz and Western rhythms to create the first generation of Mandopop. Zhou began her film career in 1935. She achieved stardom in 1937 when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl in Angels of the Streets. In that 1937 movie she sang in traditional Chinese song a song still popular in China today, The Wandering Songstress.

1940s

Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies. You'll hear three of her most famous Mandopop movie songs on today's Phantom Dancer. These songs incorporate Latin rhythms, Western opera and jazz dance music into traditional Chinese forms. There's even a snatch of Mrs Hills' 1936 'Happy Birthday to You'. Between 1946 and 1950, she often went to Hong Kong to make films such as "All-Consuming Love" (長相思), "Hua wai liu ying" (花外流鶯), "Sorrows of the Forbidden City", and "Rainbow Song" (彩虹曲). After introducing "Shanghai Nights" (夜上海) in 1949, Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of a mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children, and suicide attempts. Zhou's first husband was the composer Yan Hua (严华, 1912-1992), who wrote and sometimes also performed songs with her. She died in a mental institution aged 39 in 1957.

VIDEO

This week's Phantom Dancer video of the week is from 1947 - Zhou Xuan's waltz, "Goodnight Serenade". It was used as a station closer by Rediffusion TV Hong Kong in the early 1960s: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCqfJKKzNB0[/embed] You can also see the video of Zhou Xuan's most famous song, Ye Shanghai (Shanghai Nights) in a 2017 post on this blog at https://gregpoppleton.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/18-april-phantom-dancer-1946-%E5%91%A8%E7%92%87-zhou-xuan-%E5%A4%9C%E4%B8%8A%E6%B5%B7-ye-shang-hai-nightlife-in-shanghai/

23 APRIL PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #382
107.3 2SER Tuesday 23 April 2019 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 - 8pm 2ARM Armidale Friday 12:04 - 1pm and early morning on 24 other stations.
Set 1	Big Bands on 1946-51 Radio
Open + Star Dust	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WOR Mutual NY 1951
Open + The Best Things in Life are Free	Buzz Adlam Orchestra (voc) Kay Starr	'Music by Adlam' KECA ABC LA 27 Dec 1947
El Greco + Let's Dance (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Hollywood Palladium AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Mar 1949
Set 2	Thrasher Sisters on the Radio
Shoo Shoo Baby	Thrasher Sisters	'Fountain of Fun ' WLW Cincinati 21 Nov 1943
Massachusetts	Thrasher Sisters	'Fountain of Fun ' WLW Cincinati 1 Nov 1942
Tuesday at Ten	Thrasher Sisters	'Fountain of Fun ' WLW Cincinati 28 Nov 1943
Set 3	1935-36 Radio
Open + By The Sea	Spike Jones and his City Slickers (voc) Trio	'Corn's A-Poppin'' Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 21 May 1949
The Barber of Seville	Spike Jones and his City Slickers (voc) Sir Frederick Gas	'Corn's A-Poppin'' New York City AFRS Re-broadcast 1948
Carolina Moon + Close	Spike Jones and his City Slickers (voc) Prof. Beetlebaum	'Corn's A-Poppin'' Charlotte NC AFRS Re-broadcast 27 Feb 1949
Set 4	Zhou Xuan 1944-46
Ye Shanghai	Zhou Xuan	Comm Rec Hong Kong 1946
The Blossom Youth	Zhou Xuan	Comm Rec Hong Kong 1944
Stop Singing	Zhou Xuan	Comm Rec Hong Kong 1946
Set 5	Artie Shaw
Nightmare (theme) + Out of Nowhere	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 19 Oct 1939
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WEAF NBC Red NY 25 Nov 1938
My Heart Stood Still	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 21 Oct 1939
I Won't Tell a Soul + Nightmare (theme)	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WEAF NBC Red NY 2 Dec 1938
Set 6	Fats Waller
Ain't Misbehavin' (theme) + Hold My Hand	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
My Best Wishes	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 5 Jul 1938
What's The Matter With You?	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 16 Jul 1938
Sheik of Araby + Ain't Misbehavin' (theme)	Fats Waller	WEAF NBC Red NY 5 Jul 1938
Set 7	1930s Australian Dance Bands
Forty-Second Street	Jim Davidson and his Palais Royal Orchestra (voc) Cantrell Brothers	Comm Rec Sydney 6 Jun 1933
Harlem Heat	Dudley Cantrell and his Grace Grenadiers	Comm Rec Sydney 22 Nov 1937
Says My Heart	Jim Davidson and his ABC Orchestra	Comm Rec Sydney 17 Aug 1938
Cosmopolitan Blues	Maurice Gilmore Orchestra (voc) Jack Davey	Comm Rec Sydney 8 Jan 1935
Set 8	Slim Gaillard
Tutti Frutti + Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen	Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart (Slim and Slam)	'Rudy Vallee Show' WEAF NBC NY 14 Jul 1938
Slim's Jam	Slim Gaillard Orchestra	Comm Rec New York City 14 Dec 1945
Sabroso	Slim Gaillard Quintet	'Symphony Sid Show' Birdland WJZ ABC NY 7 Jul 1951