Dylan Band

Biography
Articles

Joe Block: There is Always Hope

Read "There is Always Hope" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 25, 2026

Joe Block's There Is Always Hope is an unusually personal debut, but what is most interesting is not the autobiographical material behind these 12 compositions. Rather, it is how Block has gradually learned to turn experience into musical structure. Written over many years, these pieces reveal a composer still testing the boundaries of his language, sometimes successfully, sometimes deliberately leaving the edges unresolved. He is a bandleader increasingly comfortable with letting the music exist beyond his own intentions.

Album Review

Norman David: Intention

Read "Intention" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
December 19, 2024

Saxophonist/composer/arranger/band leader Norman David grew up and matured as a musician in Montreal and moved to Boston to study with the late, revered, and multifaceted Herb Pomeroy at the famed Berklee College of Music. While there, in 1980, David founded a large jazz ensemble just a few members short of a full big band called the “Eleventet." It melded the improvisational qualities of a small ensemble with the rich sound and interactional possibilities of a big band. He found it ...