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)

Acclaimed pianist Beatrice Rana presents her latest album, a radiant tribute to J.S. Bach's Keyboard Concertos. Featuring BWV 1052, 1053, 1054, and 1056, this recording captures the intimate chemistry of Rana with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with Candida Thompson as concertmaster. Recorded in April 2022, following a 10-concert tour together, the album reflects the depth and brilliance born of their shared musical journey. Bach's timeless elegance and energy are reimagined through Rana's expressive artistry and the ensemble's dynamic interpretation.

April 25, 2025: Carnegie Hall has been sold out for months in anticipation of Yunchan Lim's return to perform Bach's Goldberg Variations. The whole world watched as a moment of musical history was made. 70 years earlier - and just a few blocks from Carnegie Hall - a 22-year-old Canadian called Glenn Gould made a recording of the Goldbergs which was also destined for legendary status. Decca Classics is now proud to present the next chapter in the history of this timeless music and an extraordinary young artist. 2 LP set.

Alice Sara Ott - "Johann Johannsson: Piano Works" Johann Johannsson: Piano Works, recorded by pianist Alice Sara Ott, is a selection of the late Icelandic composer's most famous works - reimagined for solo piano. These premiere recordings of the piano scores published recently by Faber Music are hauntingly beautiful interpretations, capturing the essence of Johann Johannsson's music. The album includes some of his most iconic works from films such as The Theory of Everything, Personal Effects, and Copenhagen Dreams, as well as from his studio albums including Orphee and Englaborn. CD Mintpack.

This new album continues to build the brand Piano Book, following the unprecedented success of the original released in 2019. A collection of the most popular short pieces for piano known, taught and played by players and piano lovers of all ages everywhere. Including iconic classical pieces, works by contemporary composers including soundtracks, gaming and anime, as well as unique arrangements. The album reflects Lang Lang's love of the piano, the joy of music making and his wish to inspire others, which he does through activities including Lang Lang Foundation. 2 LP set features 27 tracks. Packaged in gatefold jacket with printed insert.

Acclaimed pianist Beatrice Rana presents her latest album, a radiant tribute to J.S. Bach's Keyboard Concertos. Featuring BWV 1052, 1053, 1054, and 1056, this recording captures the intimate chemistry of Rana with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with Candida Thompson as concertmaster. Recorded in April 2022, following a 10-concert tour together, the album reflects the depth and brilliance born of their shared musical journey. Bach's timeless elegance and energy are reimagined through Rana's expressive artistry and the ensemble's dynamic interpretation.

Lang Lang - "Piano Book 2". This new album continues to build the brand Piano Book, following the unprecedented success of the original released in 2019. A collection of the most popular short pieces for piano known, taught and played by players and piano lovers of all ages everywhere. Including iconic classical pieces, works by contemporary composers including soundtracks, gaming and anime, as well as unique arrangements. The album reflects Lang Lang's love of the piano, the joy of music making and his wish to inspire others, which he does through activities including Lang Lang Foundation. SCORE EDITION 2 CD set with digital download featuring sheet music of every piece on the album, plus bonus tutorials with Lang Lang. 2 CD Score Edition.

Beatrice Rana, characterised by Gramophone as a pianist of "fire and poetry, imagination and originality, temperament and charm, all on top of fearless technical address", brings together two monumental sonatas: Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' op 106 and Chopin's 'Funeral March' op 35. The Chopin has been in Rana's recital repertoire for more than a decade, but it was during the confinement of the pandemic that she first undertook intense study of Beethoven. "I really found a deep connection with this music, especially because of the isolation, being locked away from the rest of the world. Despite the fact that it reflected so much of what was going on at that time, it's a very positive piece. It really helped me through the pandemic. It is a very human sonata, but the Chopin sonata is human in a very different way. The trio in the middle of the funeral march [the famous third movement] is kind of ubermenschlich - how a philosopher might describe surpassing oneself in a transcendental way." Rana also believes that both works show their composers in technically adventurous form: "The last movements of the two sonatas are both experiments at the highest level and in completely different ways... In the Beethoven every line is going everywhere... and in the Chopin the two hands are parallel for the entire movement." She concludes that both works "transcend the human condition in very different ways - but not altogether different... They both have so much to do with the fear of death, with the fear of loneliness. Each finds a solution in different ways."

Lang Lang - "Piano Book 2". This new album continues to build the brand Piano Book, following the unprecedented success of the original released in 2019. A collection of the most popular short pieces for piano known, taught and played by players and piano lovers of all ages everywhere. Including iconic classical pieces, works by contemporary composers including soundtracks, gaming and anime, as well as unique arrangements. The album reflects Lang Lang's love of the piano, the joy of music making and his wish to inspire others, which he does through activities including Lang Lang Foundation. 2 CD Digipak.

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.

Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition and famous for his distinctive mix of "feline agility and lightness of touch" (New York Times), breaks new ground with the supposedly well known. Following his enormous success with WAVES, a tribute to French composers and nature themes, The Seasons now focuses on Tchaikovsky's and Liu's relationship with music. "For me, this is a moment to explore some personal emotion," the pianist says of his latest album, which envelops the Russian composer's intimate and profoundly poetic language with musical breathing space.

2 LP, Limited Edition. Luxurious 180 g heavyweight vinyl pressings from OPTIMAL. This release includes a voucher with a unique code to download the digital audio files (MP3) of the full album for free. Works by Chopin, Tan Dun, Haydn, Liszt, Schubert, Schumann. "An awesome new recording of the most spectacular recital I've ever seen" (Gregory Krischling, Entertainment Weekly)

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 Frédéric 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."

BEST OF LANG LANG

2020 release. Norah Jones' seventh solo studio album Pick Me Up Off The Floor features collaborators from Brian Blade to Jeff Tweedy, and grew out of her acclaimed singles series of the past two years as the songs she hadn't yet released unexpectedly congealed into an album of tremendous depth and beauty connected by the sly groove of her piano trios, lyrics that confront loss and portend hope, and a mood that leans into darkness before ultimately finding the light.

The penultimate release in Angela Hewitt's cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas features the Piano Sonata in F minor Op.2 No.1. The listener's understanding is again enhanced by Angela's illuminating booklet notes, in which she sets out her approach to performing these most canonic of works in the entire piano literature.

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.

2016 release. Nine time Grammy award winner Norah Jones returns to the piano and her roots on her sixth solo album Day Breaks, a kindred spirit to her multi-platinum breakthrough Come Away With Me. Features legendary jazz musicians saxophonist Wayne Shorter, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, and drummer Brian Blade. "This new album feels full circle because I'm going back to my early influences," says Jones. "After the first record, I drifted away from the piano a little bit. I still played it, but was more inspired to write on guitar. I really loved playing piano on this record." With the help of co-producer Eli Wolf, Jones enlisted renown jazz musicians such as drummer Blade, organist Smith and saxophonist Shorter for recording the album. Blade previously worked with Jones on her debut, Come Away with Me. Having just had a baby and a piano in her kitchen, Jones wrote much of the album during late-night sessions at the piano while drawing influence from a wide range of jazz music. There are three cover songs on Day Breaks: "Peace", originally performed by Horace Silver, "Fleurette Africaine (African Flower)", originally performed by Duke Ellington and "Don't Be Denied", originally performed by Neil Young.

2019 release by the nine-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Norah Jones. Begin Again is a collection of singles that gathers seven eclectic songs that Jones has recorded over the past year with collaborators including Jeff Tweedy and Thomas Bartlett. Features the new song "Just a Little Bit," which was produced by Jones and features her on vocals, piano, and organ along with Brian Blade on drums.

FOUR CLASSIC ALBUMS

In his lifetime, Memphis Slim was probably the best-known blues singer in the world, moving from Memphis to Chicago and finally to Paris in the early 1960s. But it's no exaggeration to say that Memphis Slim could rock with the best of them - and this CD is here to prove it!-Memphis Slim was born Peter Chatman in Memphis in 1915.

IMPROMPTU

POESIA

Perhaps no contemporary pianist blends Latin and Jazz vocabulary with the deftness and fluency of Ed Simon, who demonstrates the point on his second Criss Cross outing. Bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Adam Cruz, both equally versed in the art of telling stories in swing and clave, join Simon on a program of six originals and a standard "You're My Everything." Guitarist Adam Rogers, himself a Criss Cross artist, and vocalist Luciana Souza augment the trio on the tune "Unknown Path."

One of the more ideal ensemble combinations in jazz is the piano trio, with David Kikoski serving as a major proponent of the genre. For his fourth Criss Cross album, Kikoski leads a powerhouse trio with bassist James Genus & master drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. This is easily Kikoski's best album to date, giving him space to romp through a diverse set of tunes, covering everything from Brazilian sambas to pop masterpieces by Frank Zappa & Brian Wilson.

Long renowned as a sideman for Roy Haynes, the astute & insightful pianist/composer Kikoski is finally coming into his own as a leader in a quartet setting, inc. Seamus Blake, Scott Colley & Jeff "Tain" Watts.

Winner in the International Thelonius Monk Competition in 1999 presents his 4th recording as a leader for Criss Cross, with a band made up of creative improvisers like Nasheet Walt's, Reid Anderson, Duane Eubanks, Ralph Brown & Sam Newsome.

Pianist has the ability to improvise lines that have the natural quality of an ear player, voiced & executed w. The sophistication & clarity of a conservatory-trained virtuoso, w. his quintet feat. Steve Wilson, Jim Rotondi, Peter Washington, Joe Farnsworth.