Gary Lucas & Qian Yi: 1930s Chinese Pop Songs

Gary Lucas is “one of the best and most original guitarists in America” – Rolling Stone
Qian Yi is “truly one of the most extraordinary performers you have ever seen” – Nigel Redden, Director of the Lincoln Center Festival

Qian Yi, the Chinese opera singer who made such an impression in Lincoln Center Festival’s Peony Pavilion, takes us to The Edge of Heaven. She sings sumptuous, romantic, and seductive Chinese pop songs from 1930s Shanghai that were selected and arranged by the guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Gods and Monsters). These melodic Chinese pop songs combine swing, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley elements with Chinese influences, further filtered through Gary Lucas’s Americana sensibility.
The album The Edge of Heaven made #1 on the World Charts in Canada, and received accolades all over the world (including China) — with rave reviews in Rolling Stone and on PBS and NPR…by far Gary’s most popular album to date.
Guitarist Gary Lucas’ live soundtrack to the 1920 silent film The Golem has made him a Rubin Museum favorite.