Accomplished musician, Liu Yue, and his band release their first live album, In Your Arms, recorded during a 2018 performance at an iconic venue in Beijing, Chen Nan reports.

Born in Beijing, Liu Yue has a background in traditional instruments, and learned the guitar and bass upon his introduction to jazz in his early 20s. (SONG XIAOHUI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

On the night of Sept 9, 2018, a performance was staged at Beijing's East Shore Jazz Cafe.

Liu Yue, the bassist, was about to perform with his trio, which included keyboardist Zhou Xia and drummer Xu Zhitong.

"We are going to record tonight's show and publish it. It would be highly appreciated if you could join us and keep it quiet," Liu said to the audience.

For Liu and his trio, it was the first time that they recorded a live album. For the audience, it was also a new experience.

"They (the audience members) were very cooperative and two of them joked that we should give them copies of the album when it was published," recalls Liu.

On March 13, the album, titled In Your Arms, was released by China Record Group, one of the biggest and oldest record companies in the country.

The album features four works: Apple Pie, Yellow Earth, Love of Bajie and In Your Arms, all written by Liu.

"We performed about eight pieces during the show and we chose four because those four works are different in terms of their styles. We love our performances of those four works that night," says Liu, 48. "Back in 2018, it was rare for jazz musicians to record albums live. It was a very memorable and valuable experience for all of us."

The title song, In Your Arms, was written by Liu in 2013, featuring musical elements of the urtiin duu, known as the "long song", which is one of the most iconic forms of Mongolian ethnic music.

Liu recalls vividly that for a long time, he couldn't name the work. Several years ago, when he performed during the Beijing Nine Gates Jazz Festival — one of the bigger such events in the country — Liu introduced the piece, saying that it didn't yet have a name and encouraged the audience to help him come up with one.

"Right after my performance, an elderly man walked up to me, telling me that he had a name for the piece — In Your Arms. I loved the name and decided to adopt the title immediately. I didn't ask him why he thought it should be named that. I guess that the piece brought him warmth and the feeling of missing someone," says Liu.

Apple Pie was written by Liu many years ago, and was featured in his debut album, China Girl, in 2011. Yellow Earth was inspired by the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan in 2008, in Southwest China's Sichuan province, and Liu imbued the piece with folk music elements of the remarkably high-pitched xintianyou songs from Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

As for Love of Bajie, Liu portrays a mysterious and surreal picture about the slow-witted and clumsy Zhu Bajie, one of the three animal spirits, portrayed in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, who, as part of his entourage, accompanies the Buddhist monk Xuanzang on his journey to India in search of sacred scrolls.

"Some of the pieces took me only 10 minutes to finish, while some took me weeks, or even months. It usually starts with a simple idea, either a melody or a concept, and then I try to develop it into a complete piece. It takes time for the piece to grow, and the best way to do that is through live performances," says Liu, when asked about his songwriting process. "When I perform a piece live, the concept grows, which is natural, and eventually, the composition completes itself."

Liu Yue (right) poses with drummer Xu Zhitong (left), keyboardist Zhou Xia (second from right) and veteran musician Liu Yuan (second from left) in a Beijing studio.  (SONG XIAOHUI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Born in Beijing, Liu learned to play liuqin and pipa, both traditional, plucked musical instruments, in childhood. As a teenager, he started to play guitar. He studied bass at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and after graduation, he joined the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra, which allowed him to learn and enjoy traditional Chinese music.

"I play contemporary instruments, like guitar and bass. I also love traditional music since I have been exposed to many traditional Chinese musical works and contemporary musical works written for traditional musical instruments. It's natural for me to combine Chinese music with jazz, which is like a language exclusively used by me," Liu says.

The other members of the trio, Zhou and Xu, recorded with Liu on his album, titled Bamboo's Murmurs, which was released in 2017.

"Though they are very young, they have impressed me with their musical talent," says Liu, adding that, before recording Bamboo's Murmurs, he heard about Zhou and Xu, but didn't know them. After rehearsals, they quickly recorded the album in the studio.

"It was a fun experience, recording with a real audience," says drummer Xu, 28, who started to learn the piano at the age of 4 and could play jazz drums by 7. "Liu Yue's music is full of originality and one of my favorite pieces of his is Apple Pie, which is lovely and rhythmic."

A graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in Germany, with a doctoral degree in jazz performance in 2019, Xu has known Liu for a long time, since Xu's twin brother studied guitar with Liu as a child.

Bassist Liu Yue (left) relaxes with band members, drummer Xu Zhitong (middle) and keyboardist Zhou Xia. Their live jazz album In Your Arms was released by China Record Group in March.  (SONG XIAOHUI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Liu also pays tribute to a key figure behind Bamboo's Murmurs and the latest album, In Your Arms, who is veteran jazz musician Liu Yuan.

Liu Yuan was the supervisor of the album, and was also the one who initiated the idea of recording a live album at East Shore Jazz Cafe, located on the bank of Beijing's Houhai Lake, of which he is the founder.

When Liu Yuan started playing the saxophone in the mid-1980s, few people in China knew what jazz was. As the genre took root in China, Liu Yuan witnessed the growth of a vibrant and fast-developing jazz scene.

Liu Yuan was a folk musician in his 20s when he learned to play the saxophone, and performed with Chinese rock music legend Cui Jian.

He launched East Shore Jazz Cafe in 2006, which helped to build the Beijing jazz scene.

"I played at East Shore Jazz Cafe in June 2006, on the first day the venue opened. Almost every Thursday, I played there. It's like a home to me and many other jazz musicians in Beijing," says Liu Yue.

"I once read an article introducing and reviewing the album Bamboo's Murmurs, which said that the album gathers four people, respectively born in the 1960s (Liu Yuan), 1970s (Liu Yue),1980s (Zhou) and 1990s (Xu). That is inheritance and innovation," says Liu Yue.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn