Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house record label, is proud to announce Steinway Artist and award-winning pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and musical director Joe Block’s There Is Always Hope. The album marks not only Block’s debut as a bandleader, but also his first album composed entirely of original works: a culmination of years of writing, performing, and musical collaboration.
The record features special guest Kurt Rosenwinkel and a battle-tested ensemble consisting of trumpeter Noah Halpern; saxophonists Chris Lewis, Morgan Guerin, Dylan Band, and Abdias Armenteros; bassist Samuel Harris; and drummer Christian McGhee. The group’s collective sound has served as Block’s compositional laboratory since 2019, resulting in a bold, cathartic statement that moves through love, perseverance, heartbreak, fear, wonder, introspection, and, ultimately, hope.
There Is Always Hope is out on September 25, 2026; the first single “Ungrounded” featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel is streaming on all digital platforms now.
To celebrate the album release, the Joe Block Quintet will perform There Is Always Hope live in its entirety for the first time at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club on September 28, with performances at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Tickets are available at jazz.org/dizzys. The performances will also be available to livestream at JazzLive.com.
Pre-save There Is Always Hope at jazz.org/block. Physical release dates to be announced.
Joe Block has spent his career refining his distinct musical voice, collaborating with icons like Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Gary Bartz as well as serving as associate music director for George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway. With There Is Always Hope, he brings that voice to the forefront through a deeply personal collection of original compositions.
“After six years of performing, revising, and living with these pieces, recording the album felt less like capturing a finished product and more like documenting a moment shaped by years of collective growth and refinement,” says Block. “I believe that hope does not require the absence of fear, grief, or uncertainty; it is the choice to continue imagining possibilities even at our lowest points.”
Joe Block is a Steinway Artist and award-winning pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and musical director from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Classically trained from the age of two, he later discovered a passion for jazz and went on to study at Columbia University and The Juilliard School.
Block received the 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, was a semifinalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition, and was named a finalist for the 2027 American Piano Awards. In 2025, he served as associate music director and pianist for George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway, and as musical director for Ornada, Armada Skis’ feature film presented with a live original score. He has previously released two albums: Love Shadows, a collaboration with vocalist Shabnam Abedi, and Solo Piano, Vol. 1.
A distinguished alumnus of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, Block is also a frequent musical director for Jazz at Lincoln Center productions and has performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, most recently during the Orchestra’s August 2026 tour in Edinburgh, Scotland and Ireland.
TRACK LISTING:
1. The Opening
2. No Easy Way
3. The Crossover
4. Panopticon
5. Self-Questions
6. Nadir
7. Ways
8. Worlds Within
9. There Is Always Hope
10. Wherever the Wind
11. Spark
12. Ungrounded (featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel)
13. Nadir (reprise)
All compositions are written by Joe Block.
PERSONNEL:
Joe Block, piano
Noah Halpern, trumpet
Chris Lewis, tenor & soprano saxophone
Morgan Guerin, tenor saxophone
Dylan Band, tenor saxophone
Abdias Armenteros, soprano saxophone
Samuel Harris, bass
Christian McGhee, drums
Special Guest
Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar (track 12)
About Blue Engine Records
Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s platform that makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere, launched on June 30, 2015. Blue Engine Records releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library. Since the institution’s founding in 1987, each year’s programming is conceived and developed by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis with a vision toward building a comprehensive library of iconic and wide-ranging compositions that, taken together, make up a canon of music. These archives include accurate, complete charts for the compositions–both old and new–performed each season. Coupled with consistently well-executed and recorded music performed by Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, this archive has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concert dates. The launch of Blue Engine aligns with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences on to jazz. For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit blueenginerecords.org.