YI NISU 1 YUNNAN CHINA
The Nisu, a sub group of the so called Yi previously called Lolo by the Hans are more than one million people in the southern part of Yunnan, belonging to tibeto burmese ethno-linguistic family. The people recorded here were isolated from the Hans up to 1980, but were in contact with other ethnic groups of the area like the Hani or Yao.
I had meet DA LUSHA (original NISU name) called WANG LILIANG (in chinese) a 63 years oldman in Kunming where he was performing with various Nisu and Hani semi professional musicians. In the 90s, he had been recruited by state cultural organization in Kunming to perform in the amusement park called Yunnan ethnic village. we visited him in his village Dishi, where he is a famous musician and craftman for all NISU music instruments.

tracks 1 to 6 played by WANG LILIANG
1 CAOGAN SMALL BAMBOO REED WITH 6 HOLES
2 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY, first part is a walking tune ( dou jiao), second part is a 3 steps tune ( san bu xian)
3 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY, tune for courting (zhao dui xiang)
4 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY, tune for touching the back (ca bei)
5 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY, tune for travel (you diao)
6 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY, tune for turn over (fan shin)

tracks 7 and 8 played by LI A PA
7 KOIXIAN COPPER MOUTH HARP
8 MENGGA (Nisu word) BAMBOO MOUTH HARP

tracks 9 to 18 instruments played by WANG LILIANG
9 ERHU 2 STRINGED BOWED INSTRUMENT, tune for dance (niu diao)
10 SIXIAN 4 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A LARGE ROUND BODY
11 SIXIAN 4 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A LARGE ROUND BODY + singing by LI A PA, tune for gathering fire wood in the mountains (kan chai)
12, 13 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY + singing by ZHANG ZHOU LAN, tune expressing the idea of not privileging boys from girls within the family (fu mu dui nan hai nu hai yi yang hao)
14 SANXIAN 3 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A SMALL BODY + singing by ZHANG ZHOU LAN, tune expressing the idea of not splitting from eachothers (bu neng fen li)
15 CRYING SONG performed by LI A PA and ZHANG ZHOU LAN, expressing the hard feeling of missing dead ones (ku diao)
16 BEAUTIFUL FLOWER SONG, SIXIAN 4 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A LARGE ROUND BODY + singing by LI A PA and ZHANG ZHOU LAN, happy tune (li hua)
17, 18 DON T BE IN A HURRY TO LEAVE, SIXIAN 4 STRINGED PLUCKED INSTRUMENT WITH A LARGE ROUND BODY + singing by LI A PA and ZHANG ZHOU LAN, drinking song (peng you bu yao zou)

note: all names of instruments and titles of songs are in chinese language except the bamboo mouth harp

RECORDED BY LAURENT JEANNEAU AND SHI TANDING
IN DISHI VILLAGE, AZHAHE HONGHE YUNNAN CHINA IN MARCH 2009