dbstudios-shanghai.com

She’s young, beautiful and abundantly talented (and sxsfly – I’m not talking about you!!!) of mixed Han and Mongolian Ancestry, playing gu zheng, matouqin (Mongolian horse head fiddle) whilst singing in four languages (Mandarin, Sanskrit, Tibetan and her own personally invented language) Sa Ding Ding is the future of world music and when in 2008 we heard she was winning the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for the Asia-Pacific region we knew we couldn’t be far wrong.

So when at dbstudios we get a call asking if we have a spare two hours to record gu zheng for her next single we find ourselves (in spite of a completely overbooked diary) magic-ing an extra two hours into the day; a Sputnik a pair of Pulsars and away we went.

Zhang Yi (who is already an acclaimed pipa player and no stranger to dbstudios) made three flawless takes and before you could say Holy Himalayas the tracks were being Rapid Shared (www.rapidshare.com) to Beijing and from there Universal Studios London.

Learn more at:

http://www.sadingding.co.uk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_Ding_Ding

www.coolminiornot.com

For those of you old enough to know that quattro doesn’t just refer to a kick-arse Audi then you’ll remember the bass-toting mini-dynamo that was Suzi Quattro (if not go check her out at www.suziquattro.com) for those of you less advanced in years and fortunate enough to be in Shanghai go check out Anna Lisa Hughes at the Cotton Club’s (1416 huai hai zhong lu/fuxing lu 6437 7110) legendary Tuesday night open mike cos you’re in for a treat and a reminder of just how cool it is when a chick (excuse me all feministas) picks up a bass and more to the point can really play and sing (in Spanish) and speak to the audience in Chinese… damn!!!

Cantautora/Bajista – that’s a singer songwriter and bass player to you & I – she has lived in Chile and has a father living in Nicaragua and is Greg’s niece; more to the point she’s going to be recording at dbstudios so watch this space… or preview some of her tracks at:

www.myspace.com/annalisavozybajo

For those of you not lucky enough to make it down to Jose Herrera & Beili Xu’s CD launch party at JZ last Monday (19th January) here you go… a preview of the album cover (cos i know you will go and buy one – available at JZ Shanghai and all sorts of dodgy pirate outfits all over the city!!!) and some You Tube links to whet your appetite:

Broken glass YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhWpI7tyPog
Funky Cold Weather part 2 You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLFlGxjUhZY
FCW part 1 YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q41rS1j9H1o