“Block could be compared with the young Herbie Hancock whose early risk taking and imagination would keep expanding throughout his legendary career.”
- All About Jazz
PRESS
August 2026“Block’s lovely understated arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Reflection in D featured the two pianists exchanging lines, with some lovely harmonies from the trumpet and trombone sections.”
Patrick Hadfield, UK Jazz News
June 2026“Pianist Joe Block took a bravura solo with a lot of hard bop in the left hand.”
Jon Garelick, The Arts Fuse
April 2026“Block demonstrates throughout the album precisely why he is among the most acclaimed young jazz musicians on the scene.”
Joe Lang, New Jersey Jazz Society
April 2026“Block impresses mightily with this first volume, his playing ever surprising, captivating, and technically accomplished.”
Textura
March 2026More than most players, Block's advanced compositional skills are active even when he is "just improvising."
Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
September 2025“He is a fine jazz pianist and his improvisations show his creative imagination.”
Will Standish, Chestnut Hill Local
June 2022“He seems to have devoured his studies. In some of his playing and composing, one can hear the vast universes of music and life condensed into powerful turns of phrase, moments of beauty, and the beginnings of innovations to come.”
Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
December 2023“Block can sometimes achieve the impossible, and at a certain point became involved with radically complex improvising within Tyner’s chords. His solo was one to die for.”
Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
October 2018“Jazz was intriguing, challenging and new, and it was a risk I took in my musical career that turned out for the better.”
Len Lear, Chestnut Hill Local
“Joe Block is one of the bright lights of the new generation of serious musicians- triple threat pianist, composer and arranger and now bandleader. With solid roots in the tradition and a forward thinking, imagination, Joe is sure to become a featured artist on stages everywhere.”
- Kurt Rosenwinkel
“Joe Block's latest recording offers an enigmatic take on playing ‘in and out’: that fluid movement between harmonically grounded and harmonically adventurous improvisation that post-bop players like Coltrane and Eric Dolphy helped shape in the 1960s, later given a name by Joe Henderson's 1964 album of the same title. For a musician this young to move through that language so naturally speaks to the young pianist's depth. Throughout the record, his piano work shifts fluidly between modal, melodic, and rhythmic ideas; he steers the group with robust authority. His interplay with the ensemble is the album's real strength; the conversations between his inventive lines and the band's own vigorous playing give the record its energy and depth.
Joe's classical influences and artistic instincts run through every composition he arranged for this outing, giving the record its sense of unpredictability. I haven't the words to express how deeply proud I am of Joe Block; each of his recent recordings reveals just how much further he continues to grow as an artist. The title of this recording feels especially fitting for where we all find ourselves right now. Thank you, Joe, for having the courage to create and share music this intensive and inventive. ‘There Is Always Hope’!!!
- Lovett Hines
“I’m pleased to call Joe Block a friend. His pen has always been incredibly unique and filled with profound logic. This body of work he has recorded is lush. You can feel the breath of each instrument in the way they are delicately interpreting this music. The ensemble has a patience and an intentionality that feels so refined. Joe Block has contributed a lovely album to the canon of great music that lives on the shoulders of the elders and masters who came before us that we so revere.”
- Immanuel Wilkins
“Joe Block possesses an ultra sophisticated, richly textured and deeply personal harmonic palette like none other, with which he presents fresh new colors and shapes to universally beloved melodies of the American songbook in Solo Piano Vol. 1. Joe is a vital and most welcome new voice in music who’s already extending the profound documented legacy of how beautiful a piano can sound.”
- Benny Green
“I think that Solo Piano Vol. 1 by Joe Block makes a strong, bold artistic statement. It goes against the norms of what’s expected on a solo jazz piano album. While the piano playing is amazingly poetic and inspiring, his sensitive approaches playing these timeless melodies is what stands out here. He plays with much restraint and a maturity way beyond his years. Bravo Joe, Bravo!!!”
- Sullivan Fortner
“Joe Block’s new solo piano recording is an imaginative exploration of several well-chosen songs from a wide range of sources. Joe finds a unique perspective on each, with a warm sound and an ear for harmonic color and surprise.”
- Bruce Barth 
“I remember when Joe Block started posting videos of him playing solo piano. This recording serves as a milestone and an acknowledgment of the musical identity that he has cultivated. Joe is inventive, and his talent for arranging manifests in special ways when he is alone at the piano.”
- Isaiah J. Thompson