“...outstanding among [Chet’s] later recordings....This is a record to give a listener fresh heart...one feels there cannot be much wrong with jazz while it is producing records like this.” (Max Harrison, International Jazz Journal) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

The First Lady of jazz, Mary Lou Williams (1910 - 1981) was the evolution of jazz itself. Starting her professional career as pianist/composer/arranger in the 20s, her style was swing but in the 40s she adopted the bop and later on she even ventured into the realm of avant-garde jazz. Yet she never lost her blues feeling which is evident in this CD. She contributed compositions and arrangements for many famous big bands such as Andy Kirk, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington. In the late 60s and the 70s she was more focused on composing sacred music. And one of her jazz masses was choreographed by Alvin Ailey. Around the time of this recording Mary Lou in her mid-60s was still active in the New York jazz scene performing regularly at the Cookery with the group recorded here. SteepleChase was proud to have the opportunity of recording one of the most significant artists of jazz of this century.

Roger “Buck” Hill (1927-2017) was a full-time employee of a Washington D.C. post office when his much-acclaimed debut album was released from SteepleChase in 1978. Since then this legendary tenorman has invested more of his time in the musical activities and has regularly brought his band to the enthusiastic European audience. He otherwise performed after work at local live spots, sometimes with visiting artists such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, among others. “Buck Hill is one of the most notable ‘regional’ jazzmen in America … SteepleChase albums feature Hill with two different rhythm sections, … each winds up with the same result: honest, proficient blowing that has its individual clout…” (The Penguin Guide to Jazz)

This was the first appearance of the popular Clifford Jordan & The Magic Triangle (alias The Cedar Walton Trio) on SteepleChase. (Other releases are SCCD 31047 “Highest Mountain” and SCCD 31104 “On Stage vol. 3”.) “...a truly fine quartet recording.” (MM)

Recorded in NYC November 1988, this album is the first of the series of recordings SteepleChase undertook after a few years of pause from the New York recording scene. Saxophonist Gary Bartz returned to acoustic hard-bop around that time from fusion jazz having played in the 70’s Miles Davis group. “Gary Bartz convinces you his incisive alto would have fit with Monk himself - his ear-catching post-Bird cry, rhythmic snap and blues-sense would have put him in the pocket...he treats the material with the honour it deserves and the spirit it demands.” (Kevin Whitehead, Cadence)

Duke Jordan (1922-2006) famous for his intense lyricism embarked on the world jazz scene as a member of the classic Charlie Parker Quintet in the late 40s with his trademark introduction to “Embraceable You”. Jordan unlike many other American jazz musicians in Bebop era found his artistic and personal living space in Europe since the early 70s. His extensive recording output on SteepleChase including this album from 1985 recorded in Denmark makes up the huge part of his discography. “A most agreeable set that is both eminently listenable and very enterprising .… Jordan was always a fleetly swinging but subtle pianist whose all-round musicianship has never got the recognition it merits. This fine trio deserves to sell well and spared his name further afield.” (Richard Palmer, Jazz Journal International)

“Frozen Music” was recorded in New York City 32 years ago and like most of Andy LaVerne’s releases this album has not lost its original energy and charm. Tenor and soprano saxophonist Rick Margitza was then a young rising star under contract with Blue Note. Andy was already a prolific composer who penned all the tunes of this album. Bassist Marc Johnson who was a member of Bill Evans’s last trio gave graceful and subtle coloring to LaVerne’s compositions. “Frozen Music, Andy LaVerne’s third album for SteepleChase, is a solid, modern blowing session...he makes skilful use of suspensions, pedal points, and ostinatos, which along with the music’s floating harmonies, give the soloists a wealth of elbow room...” (Mark Stryker, Cadence) “un disque du plus haut niveau musical.” (Henri Marchal – Spectacles)

Live On Tour In The Far East, Vol. 2

Dexter In Radioland vol. 7 The seventh and last volume of live transmission from the 60’s captures the exuberant atmosphere of the legendary ‘Dexter nights’ at Montmartre. “...The music here, recorded for Danish radio. all comes form 1964, when Dexter was at...the zenith of his career and probably the happiest time of his life...” (Steve Voce, Jazz FM)

Classical Music

The Heart of the Cello (compilation - 30th Anniversary of death: October - Jacqueline du Pr� - "She clearly was born to play the cello," wrote the New York Times of Jacqueline Du Pr� in 1967. Just five years later her career was cut tragically short by illness. Du Pr�'s recordings provide a treasurable memento of the "perfect balance of youth and maturity" that her teacher, William Pleeth, found in her music-making: "She approached each new experience with spontaneous pleasure and enthusiasm." Offering a vivid experience of her life-enhancing art, this 2-CD set of concertos, sonatas and chamber works features recordings remastered in 24-BIT / 96kHz at London's famous Abbey Road Studios.

It is quite impossible to imagine today's violin heritage without the absolute musical genius of Perlman. Daniel Barenboim. Over the past 60 years Itzhak Perlman has become established as one of the great violinists of history - a player on a level with such legendary figures as Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh. Providing a treasurable memento of his art, this is a newly assembled 5LP collection of masterworks for violin and orchestra in what have become legendary recordings. They bear witness to his collaborations with the world's greatest orchestras, and feature an array of superlative fellow soloists and conductors: Carlo Maria Giulini, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Eugene Ormandy.

Itzhak Perlman, born in 1945, is the supreme violinist of his time. Over the past 60 years he has become established as one of the great violinists of history - a player on a level with such legendary figures as Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh, and an influential musician admired around the world by a broad and varied public and by students of his instrument. Presenting his art in all it's warmth, generosity and brilliance, this comprehensive 78-CD edition features all the recordings Perlman made for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics over a period of more than 40 years. The recordings document his collaborations with the world's greatest orchestras and feature an array of superlative fellow soloists and conductors, including Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Andr� Previn and Pinchas Zukerman.

Perlman already had a recording of the Brahms Double Concerto to his name - on that occasion sharing the bill with Mstislav Rostropovich, conducted by Bernard Haitink (1979). He creates an equally sumptuous dialogue here with Yo-Yo Ma. The two performers match one another for brio and lyricism, their playing informed by the same sense of joyfulness, as their enthusiasm and generosity of spirit combine. Indeed, the coherence of sound, vibrato and intonation of these two soloists, each at the peak of his powers, reveals a fellowship both instrumental and spiritual. The vigour of the attacks and power of the phrasings, sustained by dazzling playing from the orchestra, add a rarely achieved Romantic dimension to this performance, transforming it into a veritable feast for the ears.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Emerging triumphant in consistent and spectacular fashion, Itzhak Perlman - always a perceptive musician - also tells a captivating story with every piece. Ever since they were first published in Milan in 1820, the 24 Caprices of Niccol� Paganini have been regarded as the ultimate challenge for any virtuoso violinist. They are provocatively dedicated Agli artisti ('To the artists'), but few of Paganini's contemporaries were able to tackle the multiple technical demands inherent in the most astounding solo violin works yet written. In the 20th century, even allowing for the development of instrumental technique, the advent of modern recording technology and it's editing facilities, few performers in our own age have been brave enough to commit all 24 of the Caprices to disc. The legendary Jascha Heifetz recorded only three, Yehudi Menuhin only six. The Italian maestro Ruggiero Ricci, a life-long advocate of Paganini's music, was the first to set down all 24 on record. But it was Israeli-born Perlman in 1972, then aged 26, who was to make the definitive recording. Almost half a century later, Perlman's recording remains the benchmark by which all others are measured.

Classical Music

BACH: SONATAS & PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN

The pianist Claudio Arrau fully deserves the epithet "legendary": a sovereign technical command, a deep patience and a gravitation towards weighty matters, enriched by his study with 'philosopher pianists' such as Busoni and Martin Krause. Made in London from the late '40s to the late '50s, this collection of profound and impassionate recordings is a striking illustration of his Beethovenian authority.

Unquestionably one of the greatest pianists of all time is how Gramophone magazine has described Martha Argerich. Her relationship with the label goes back to 1965 and her victory at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Over several decades it has produced a rich catalogue of live and studio recordings, embracing a repertoire that spans three centuries, a diversity of genres, and collaborations with such figures as Charles Dutoit, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky and Itzhak Perlman. The complete recordings for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics are featured in this box. Martha Argerich is a pianist of transcendent gifts and her special joy in musical collaboration is the key to the second part of this collection: the complete live recordings made at Switzerland's Lugano Festival between 2002 and 2016 and released by EMI Classics and Warner Classics. Argerich is heard in solo works and concertos, but above all in intimate partnership with fellow instrumentalists, performers she sees as her musical "family". This new boxset puts together in 46CDs all the recordings made by Martha Argerich for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics, from 1965 to 2020.

Michael Finnissy's output for the guitar spans almost 60 years of his career and represents an enormous contribution to the repertoire of the instrument from one of Britain's most significant composers. Published a few days before Finnissy's 80th birthday, this bold and ambitious album celebrates this milestone by bringing together all of his works for solo guitar and guitar ensemble for the first time, in performances by Finnissy's collaborators and led by new music virtuoso and tireless guitar explorer Sam Cave.

The Schwetzingen Festival concerts were dedicated to Chopin in 1999 on the 150th anniversary of his death. Four pianists were invited to the event. Three of them-Lilya Zilberstein, Anatole Ugorski, and Andrei Gavrilov-were 'stars' of Deutsche Grammophon. The fourth was Idil Biret, who had not attained 'star' status as it was only available to those with contracts with the so-called "major" record labels. But she had been the first pianist ever to record the complete works of Chopin for solo piano and with piano and orchestra for Naxos, received a Grand Prix du Disque Fr�d�ric Chopin in Warsaw in 1995 for this, and was to be decorated with one of the highest orders of Poland by President Kaczynsky in 2007. Idil Biret did something no other pianist could do. Dr. Peter Stieber wrote: "Your own Chopin evening was then the breath-taking testimony of a great artist. We all could experience together how in your hands the wonderful music of Chopin begun truly to blossom."

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. The first of Sonny's albums for Impulse!, this 1965 collection caught Rollins at the peak of his creative powers, and is arguably the tenor hero's best for the label-an intense, freewheeling set, featuring classic takes on "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Three Little Words" in the company of Ray Bryant (piano), Walter Booker (bass) and Mickey Roker (drums).

SYMPHONIES NOS 3 & 6 OVERTURE TO THE FALL BABYLON

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 archive release. In 1964, the National Film Board of Canada asked John Coltrane to record the soundtrack for a French-language film titled Le Chat Dans Le Sac (The Cat in the Bag). In June of that year, Coltrane's classic quartet entered Rudy Van Gelder's studio and recorded five previously-recorded Coltrane originals. For many years, viewers of the film who recognized the music thought that they were listening to the original recordings, though in fact they were new and had never been heard.

Live archive release from the Jazz legend. Thelonious Monk Paris 1969 is a fascinating and important late-career document of the legendary Jazz pianist and composer in performance with his Quartet at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris, France on December 15, 1969. The concert also featured a surprise guest appearance from renowned drummer Philly Joe Jones.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Though he first recorded in the late-1940s, Dexter Gordon's Blue Note debut Doin' Allright-recorded and released in 1961-marked a rebirth for the great tenor saxophonist after a decade in which drug addiction and legal troubles limited his output. But his Blue Note years put him back on top with a run of essential albums that stand as classics of the jazz canon. Doin' Allright featured a top flight quintet with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Horace Parlan, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Al Harewood on a set that presented bluesy hard bop originals like "Society Red" and highlighted Gordon's stunning balladry on the standard "You've Changed."

The distinctive character of each of Prokofiev's Violin Concertos seems rooted in it's genesis: the first, nervy and iconoclastic, coincided with the Russian Revolution; the second, more sober and expansively lyrical, dates from 1935, when Prokofiev was preparing a permanent return to his native country. The two concertos were written nineteen years apart - a period that coincides almost completely with the years Prokofiev spent "in exile", first in the US and then in France. He composed No. 1 shortly before leaving Russia, and No. 2 just months before his return to the Soviet Union. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the two works are so different from one another. Perlman chose to record these two concertos with Gennady Rozhdestvensky, whose experience in this repertoire he no doubt deemed second to none.

Itzhak Perlman, born in 1945, is the supreme violinist of his time. In works composed by Nicol� Paganini and Pablo de Sarasate - two virtuosi who in their own eras defined the art of the violin - Itzhak Perlman, in the recording that launched his Warner Classics catalogue, offers both dazzling brilliance and enticing lyricism.

A starry but congenial trio, Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Daniel Barenboim interact with each other and with the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven's extraordinary Triple Concerto. Released for the first time on vinyl.

The Nutcracker, first seen in 1892, recounts the magical Christmas Eve of young Clara. Her adventures in the company of an enchanted prince inspired Tchaikovsky to such spellbinding numbers as the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Waltz of the Flowers and a sparkling series of national dances. In describing himself in an interview as "a complete romantic", Andr� Previn suggested just why his recordings of Tchaikovsky's three great ballet scores, made in the 1970s with the London Symphony Orchestra, have become classics of the catalogue. In their sweep, colour and surging emotion, they exemplify the spirit of late Romanticism, the musical aesthetic at the heart of Previn's repertoire. Over his 11 years as Principal Conductor of the LSO (1968-1979) he and his musicians became something of a media phenomenon, notably with their own series on BBC television, which helped to draw full houses for their concerts in London and on tour.