José Valentino Bajista

Born in Shanghai in 1955, Xiaogang Ye is regarded as one of China’s leading contemporary composers. He has written music in a variety of genres, including symphonic and chamber works as well as scores for the stage. Ye has also composed music for films and the two works recorded here are both examples of this. Sichuan Image consists of 29 brief and atmospheric pieces composed to accompany a filmed travelogue of the scenic province in Western China. In preparation for the work, the composer visited mountains, river, villages and ancient historical sites in Sichuan. Lending further colour to the large symphony orchestra, four Chinese musicians perform on traditional instruments.

José James spent a decade reshaping jazz with the genre-blurring verve of a crate-digging beat guru, before becoming a solo R&B star. The last couple years he lived in Bill Withers' shoes — recording and touring his legendary songbook for the Lean On Me project. Now, the satin-voiced songwriter's latest is No Beginning No End 2, a sequel to his 2013 album that resurrects the bold eclecticism audiences first fell in love with. After the Bill Withers tour, James recalls: “I wrote a thing on Instagram saying I was thinking about No Beginning No End 2 and people went insane. They wrote thousands of comments about how the first one changed their life. I don't sit around and think 'my work is so important' so that was kinda nice."

Spanish/Dutch horn player José Sogorb, 3rd Horn at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, releases Mélodies Volées, a multifaceted hommage to melody. ‘Voler’ means ‘stolen’ in French. Stealing a melody or (better) using its ‘DNA’, is a phenomenon which is from all times. To whom does a melody actually belong? On this sublimely versatile album José investigates this question. He does this in close relation with the splendid pianist Éadaoin Copeland on the majority of the program and featuring José’s RCO colleagues Miriam Pastor Burgos, Mark Braafhart and Rob Dirksen. On Mélodies Volées, you’ll be treated with impeccable horn playing with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach, Schubert, Brahms, De Falla, Pärt, semi-improvised music, finalised by a freshly made arrangement of a Björk song that flows back again to Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (who was a contemporary of Bach).