Jan Gunnar Hoff - Stories - Stories is Jan Gunnar Hoff's third solo piano album on the 2L label and is a sequel to his critically acclaimed album LIVING from 2013. On the new release Hoff stretches his creative abilities, presenting contrasting compositions and improvisations, in a distinctly personal mixture. Some of the pieces are meditative and expressive, while others have a strong rhythmic vibe. Stories also displays Hoff as an arranger, presenting versions of classics like "God Only Knows" and the traditional Swedish folk song "Värmlandsvisan". SACD and Blu-ray Audio

Classical Music

You never know what American original soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is going to do next. After the success of her GRAMMY® Nominated 2014 all-ballads release Sixteen Sunsets Bloom shifts into another gear showcasing the kinetic energy of her acclaimed trio playing with the musicians that she knows best on Early Americans. It’s her first trio album, sixteenth as leader and sixth recording on the Outline label. Her sound is like no other on the straight horn and she lets it fly on every track. She’s joined by long-time bandmates Mark Helias on bass & drummer Bobby Previte and with over fifty years of shared musical history together the album is sure to be a winner. Bloom’s collaboration with Helias dates back to the mid 70’s in New Haven CT and her unique chemistry with Previte has been ongoing since 2000. She brought the group together in summer 2015 to Avatar Studio B in NYC to capture their breathtaking sound in both stereo and surround-sound with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features twelve Bloom originals ranging from the rhythmic drive of “Song Patrol” and “Singing The Triangle” to the spare melancholy of “Mind Gray River.” She closes the album with a signature solo rendition of the American songbook classic, Bernstein & Sondheim’s ”Somewhere.” World-renowned portrait photographer Brigitte Lacombe contributes a stunning cover image of Bloom. “Playing in threes” has always held a special fascination for jazz artists - it offers the possibility that something can be slightly off balance and that’s just what fires the imagination of players like Bloom, Helias, & Previte. With Early Americans Jane Ira Bloom stands in the vanguard of her generation carving out new territory in the heart of the jazz tradition. Don’t miss this trio of “fearless jazz explorers who share a commitment to beauty & adventure.” Soaring, poetic, quick silver, spontaneous and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She’s been steadfastly developing her singular voice on the straight horn for 35 years creating a body of music that marks her as an American original. She’s an nine-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano sax, the Downbeat International Critics Poll, and the Charlie Parker Award for Jazz Innovation and has collaborated with such outstanding jazz artists as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Kenny Wheeler, Julian Priester, Mark Dresser, Jerry Granelli, Matt Wilson, Billy Hart and Fred Hersch. Her 2014 all-ballads release Sixteen Sunsets was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for surround-sound. In addition she’s garnered numerous awards for her creativity including a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition and the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz. JIB was the first musician commissioned by the NASA Art Program and was honored to have an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083janeirabloom). A strong visual thinker, Bloom's affinity for other art forms has both enriched her music and led to collaborations with other innovative artists such as actors Vanessa Redgrave & Joanne Woodward, painter Dan Namingha, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, director John Sayles and legendary dancer/ choreographer Carmen DeLavallade. Her long-standing interest in space exploration and neuroscience has lead to cutting edge recording projects inspired by outer and inner space. Performance venues include Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Dizzy’s Club Jazz @ Lincoln Center, St. John the Divine Cathedral and the Einstein Planetarium in Washington DC. She has composed several works commissioned through the Chamber Music America/ Doris Duke New Jazz Works Program including Chasing Paint, a series of compositions inspired by painter Jackson Pollock, Mental Weather, a suite of neuroscience inspired pieces, and recently Wild Lines, a jazz reimagining of Emily Dickinson’s poetry. JIB has recorded and produced 16 album projects since 1977 for CBS, Arabesque, ENJA, Pure Audio and Artistshare Records, and founded her own record label (Outline Records). A professor at the New School for Jazz in New York City, she holds degrees from Yale University and the Yale School of Music.

This 2/4/6 disc is a hybrid DVD which will play on current DVD video players as well as DVD Audio players. The 2/4/6 disc features more soundstage depth and textures within the music plus greater large and small scale dynamic contrasts.

AN AUDIO-ONLY DVD. a satinym swinging album that pays homage to the legends of American Jazz. This record shows off Faddis' talents in a whole new way. Featuring Grammy Award-winner Paquito D'Rivera with a fourteen piece Jazz orchestra" the trumpeter demonstrates he can get inside a song and touch those offer elusive tender sports, superb execution by such remarkable musicians as Bill Easley, George Young, John Clark, Roger Rosenberg and Paquito D'Rivera. All the tunes are warm and smartly developed.

Chicago tenor saxophone legend and proprietor of the longest standing and most adventurous avant garde jazz club in Chicago, Fred Anderson celebrated his 80th birthday this past March and Delmark was there to capture it.

Nicole Mitchell brings an exciting new approach to flute improvisation. She is the founder of the critically-acclaimed Black Earth Ensemble, and was called Downbeat Magazine's #1 Rising Star Flutist in 2006 and 2007.

Bill Evans was one of the most distinctive and influential jazz pianists of all time with a rich legacy that remains undiminished since his untimely death in 1980. He recorded over fifty albums as a leader, received thirty one Grammy nominations, and has had an inescapable impact on virtually every jazz piano player of prominences who came after him. This DVD brings together two Bill Evans Trio Concerts (1996 and 1980) that have never been on the market before, both featuring Evans in prime form. Bill Evans was a major side-man with Miles Davis and played and equal role with Miles in composing Kind of Blue the best selling jazz album in history. This DVD offers performances of Davis' tune 'Nardis,' along with standards and trademark favorites such as 'Stella by Starlight,' 'Autumn Leaves,' 'Days of Wine and Roses' and much more. A special bonus included on the DVD is an interview conducted after the 1980 concert where Evans discuses his music as well as the current jazz scene.

This is an intensely personal, painfully revealing portrait of one of jazz's greatest alto saxophonist, Art Pepper. A remarkable expressive soloist and composer who alos was an addict, thief, womanizer and wildman. In candid interviews, he recounts his troubled marriages, dependence on drugs, prison terms, and luck in meeting his last wife, an articulate, compassionate defender of her errant husband. Year 1982. 50 minutes.

Chicago tenor sax legend Anderson performs with Hamid Drake and Harrison Bankhead.

AACM saxophonist, composer and bandleader Ernest Dawkins brought his NHE into the Velvet Lounge on July 14, 2005 for this live DVD knowing it would be one of the groups' last performances at the historic 'old' Velvet Lounge.

Rob Mazurek & Chad Taylor have been the heart & soul of the Chicago Underground groups for over a decade. Bassist Jason Ajemian makes his CUT debut, bringing a wide range of musical influences to the table. 'The trio's music is never frenetic.

Ari carries on the Chicago tenor sax and the AACM traditions. He melds them into his own voice and no matter how far out he takes the music, it still remains accessible and enjoyable.

Kahil El'Zabar, drums, earth drums, kalimba; Corey Wilkes, trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion; Ernest Dawkins, alto and tenor saxophone, percussion; Fareed Haque, electric and acoustic guitar. In a Down Beat review of their previous Delmark album, Freedom Jazz Dance (517) Paul de Barros wrote "The forms being advanced here-or at least merged in a creative, new way are African-American syncopation (Funk, Jazz) and the vertically integrated multiple parts of African drum ensemble music." DVD also contains audio interview special feature. NTSC all region.

The band traveled from Hamburg, Germany to Chicago last March to perform at the Ace Hardware store on 35th Steret, an official Chicago landmark. It was once home to the Sunset Cafe, Louis Armstrong's gig in the late 1920s.

Intimate live performance of avant duo Mikrokolketyw at the legendary Polish film studios Wytwornia Filmow Fabularnych in April of 2010. Dew Point places the material of "Revisit" into the performance setting, expanding their tunes into improvised forms, playing as the soundtrack to director Harmon's film Sound in Motion. Mikrokolektyw's electronics driven compositions become more acoustic, the dynamic of each song expanded and explored. Visually the DVD provides a lush and atmospheric backdrop in which the band plays out against rich colors touched with interludes of abstraction from the film they accompany. 5.1 surround sound, PCM Stereo, plus the film Sound in Motion. Directed by Raymond Salvatore Harmon. NTSC all region, 70 minutes.