Jimmy King Band - Shanghai At Night (2012)

The Paramount Dance Hall is the grand old lady of Shanghai's past. But in 1930, it was the most expensive and elaborate ballroom of its age, with a specially designed wooden dance floor with cantilevered springs. Now, the old songs still play, and the elderly dancers twirl stiffly — but the Paramount is a tired reminder of what once was.

Today, a small group of jazz musicians are re-creating the sounds of the old days for a series of concerts in Shanghai. These elderly veterans of the jazz scene play with the same verve as they did in the 1940s. But the roaring nightlife of Shanghai came to an end after the Communist revolution in 1949. Finally in 1980, as Shanghai opened up once more, the management of the Peace Hotel decided to start a jazz band, the first in China. Back at the Paramount, the band still plays on.