Year of the Funky

The talented young guzheng player Bei Bei has teamed up, for her sophomore effort, with a very experienced producer and multi-instrumentalist, Shawn Lee. Bei Bei began playing guzheng (Chinese zither) at the age of seven and was trained to a professional level at the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She also studied jazz and improvisation at Fullerton College, California, which led to collaborations with funk, jazz, electronica, hip-hop and dance artists. Lee is a London-based American who has worked as a musician, producer, singer-songwriter, composer and radio DJ with a wide range of artists, in fields including popular music, advertising and film and TV soundtracks.
It is tempting to say this album has nothing to commend it. But that would be unfair; suffice to say that the guzheng sounds more clunky than funky. Is it bad enough to be good? Most certainly. One might very much enjoy a little ‘Love in Hong Kong’, a languid stroll by the ‘Purple River’ followed by a cheesy, greasy ‘Bossa Rossa’. Go ahead, give in to temptation, and be mildly, or perhaps quite wildly, amused. This is very light entertainment, after all.