Search - Gary Lucas :: Edge of Heaven

Western Hands, Eastern Voices

Christopher Dee | Chappaqua, New York | 02/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you listen to music almost constantly as I do, you come across something like this every five years or so: something that has the combination of virtuosity, strangeness, passion, intelligence and delicacy that makes a work of art not just beautiful, but beautiful in a new way.What kind of music is it? I hope that I can describe it in a way that doesn't make it sound like a stunt, or some kind of insipid musical tourism, which it absolutely is not. This is a guitar record, with voice on almost half of the tracks, and a drummer and bassist in the background on four. The songs are Lucas's arrangements for fingerstyle guitar (electric, acoustic, National Steel) of Chinese pop ballads of the mid-20th century. Seven of the tracks are instrumental; the other six feature a female vocalist: in three cases Celest Chong, in the other three Gisbourg. The vocals are in Chinese. Are you still with me? Please, please give this music a chance. Some of the arrangements are, I imagine, close to the flavor of the original recordings (which I have not heard); some are given more of a blues inflection (even electric slide on one), and sound more familiar. If you know Gary Lucas you will not be surprised by the jaw-dropping strength and dexterity of his playing here but you may not be prepared for how achingly beautiful and "inside" it is. If you are really familiar with his work you may have heard instrumental versions of this music on two earlier albums: "The Wall" and "Songstress on the Edge of Heaven" on Evangeline and a live version of the latter song on @Paradiso. Those performances are highlights of their respective albums, but this CD makes them seem like rehearsals, which is what they turn out to have been. This is not "blues guitar meets China" or any other kind of stupid musical hybrid. This is about the deep level at which the emotionality of Eastern and Western music is the same, an idea which surprises on first hearing but which should really surprise no one, and about the melting away of that surprise to reveal the calm core of beauty inside it. I love this record, and you won't be sorry if you go a little out of your way to hear it."

Quirky Melodies plus Ethereal Beauty

J. K. Townsend | Nashville TN USA | 08/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have travelled to China several times, regularly read Chinese poetry and literature, and love Chinese music of all genres. These are Chinese songs, make no mistake, originally recorded by chanteuses who performed in the 1930s to 1940s. The records made by these Shanghai Divas are exquisite in their own right. Gary Lucas has transformed these quirky, gorgeous melodies into a set of solo guitar (sometimes double or triple tracked) works that stand on their own for their inventiveness and masterly arrangements. Occasionally two superb female vocalists -- singing in Mandarin -- will share the spotlight with a drummer and bassist. There is variety, quirkiness, the familiar along with the strange, a recording where time passes quickly leaving the listener wanting more. Anyone interested in hearing the original singers with their big band arrangements should check out the reissued and remastered "Shanghai Divas" set, available through Amazon."