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Dave Ballou

Trumpeter/Composer Dave Ballou can be heard in a variety of settings; from solo trumpet improvisations to large ensembles performing notated compositions. His recordings as a leader can be found on the Steeplechase, CleanFeed and pfMentum record labels.  Ballou has performed or recorded with ensembles led by Rabih Abou-Kahlil, Steely Dan, Michael Formanek, Woody Herman, Andrew Hill, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, Sheila Jordan, Oliver Lake, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Dewey Redman and Maria Schneider.  Ballou worked closely with the late Gunther Schuller performing as soloist on the definitive recording of Journey into Jazz with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and as a featured soloist for the world premiere of Schuller’s Encounters. He was an orchestra member for the Tony Award winning Broadway revival of 42nd St. (2001-2004). Currently, Ballou is Professor of Music at Towson University in Towson, MD where he is the leader of the Jazz/Commercial Music program.

The Meridian Arts Ensemble, The TILT Brass ensemble and the Monarch Trio have all performed his compositions. His work for solo trumpet, Samskara,  has been recorded by Jon Nelson. University of Michigan French Horn professor, Adam Unsworth, performed an adaptation of Samskara for horn. Ballou received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2009 and 2015.

Ballou is a Professor of Music at Towson University and division leader of the Jazz/Commercial music division and director of the Bill and Helen Murray Jazz residency. He teaches classes in Jazz history, Jazz theory and improvisation, Jazz arranging, studio jazz trumpet, and improvisation for all instrumentalists, jazz composition and coaches small jazz ensembles including the improvisation ensemble. He has taught at the Litchfield Jazz Camp, the Maryland Summer Jazz Camp, the Maine Jazz Camp and The Banff Institute.

He earned a BM (magna cum laude) from Berklee College of Music in 1986 and a MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1992.

Born in Peace Dale, Rhode Island Ballou was drawn to the trumpet at age 11 and quickly was excited by the sounds of jazz trumpeters Clifford Brown, Woody Shaw, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra as well as classical trumpeters John Willbraham and Bud Herseth. His early trumpet studies were with RI philharmonic trumpeter Julio Tancredi. He began working gigs at the age of 16 playing society gigs in the mansions of Newport and Italian Festival parades in Providence, RI. After brief study at the University of Rhode Island, Ballou attended the Berklee College of Music. There he studied with Herb Pomeroy, Greg Hopkins, Jimmy Mosher and Greg Fritze. Other teachers have been George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Hal Crook, Laurie Frink, Charles Schlueter, Jeff Stout and Paul Caputo.

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Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Undicesimo album per l'Orchestra New York di Satoko Fujii, qui composta di tredici elementi, dei quali ben nove già presenti nel primo lavoro, South Wind, risalente al lontano 1997. Il disco è registrato nel maggio del 2019 ed è uscito già lo scorso anno, ma merita egualmente grande attenzione, in quanto si tratta di un lavoro di primissimo livello. Né poteva essere diversamente, considerando non solo la qualità media, altissima, delle produzioni della musicista giapponese, ma anche l'organico straordinario della ...

5
Album Review

Mario Pavone: Blue Vertical

Read "Blue Vertical" reviewed by John Sharpe


There is an inevitably tinge of sadness to Blue Vertical. Not because of any particular flavor of the music, but because, along with Isabella (Clean Feed, 2021) it's one of two final releases by bassist Mario Pavone, who died aged 80 less than two months after this March 2021 recording session. Pavone began his career in the '60s free scene, and became a stalwart of bandleaders as diverse as trumpeter Bill Dixon and saxophonist Thomas Chapin. In a ...

7
Album Review

Warriors of the Wonderful Sound: Soundpath

Read "Soundpath" reviewed by Mark Corroto


If we alter President John F. Kennedy's 1962 moon spaceflight speech just a bit, it easily fits the big band adaptation of Muhal Richard Abrams' magnum opus Soundpath, “We choose to perform this composition not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept." Accepting the challenge was band leader Bobby Zankel and ...

2
Album Review

Warriors of the Wonderful Sound: Soundpath

Read "Soundpath" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


Nel 2011 il sassofonista di Filadelfia Bobby Zankel, leader della big band The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound e promotore di laboratori di musica contemporanea, propose a Muhal Richard Abrams un lavoro compositivo che avrebbe dovuto essere affidato alla band, con la direzione dello stesso pianista. Operazioni di questo tipo erano già state realizzate da Zankel negli anni precedenti con le musiche per big band di Julius Hemphill, dirette da Marty Ehrlich, poi con composizioni di Rudresh Mahanthappa e Steve ...

14
Album Review

Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio +1: Blue Vertical

Read "Blue Vertical" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Bassist and composer Mario Pavone died on May 15, 2021, after a seventeen-year battle with cancer. The Connecticut native had many interests and earned a degree in engineering, a Doris Duke Foundation grant and, for a quarter-century, shared his wisdom and talent with kids at the Litchfield Performing Arts Jazz Camp, where he also served as a board member. In the 1970s, Pavone, along with Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton helped launch The Creative Musicians Improvisors Forum, a Northeast ...

10
Extended Analysis

Soundpath

Read "Soundpath" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


Muhal Richard Abrams (1930-2017) was a revered pianist, composer and teacher of great capability and range who, in addition to his own achievements, inspired and influenced many jazz musicians in both the mainstream and avant-garde categories. Largely self-taught as a result of a personal decision to follow his own path, and early on pursuing church music, big band, blues, bebop and avant-garde jazz in his home city of jny: Chicago, he grasped music from its roots, and so was able ...

8
Album Review

The MacroQuarktet: The Complete Night: Live At The Stone NYC

Read "The Complete Night: Live At The Stone NYC" reviewed by John Sharpe


The Complete Night presents forward looking trumpeters Herb Robertson and Dave Ballou in a series of long form improvisations from NYC venue The Stone in 2007, in a foursome with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey. The first set was previously issued as Each Part A Whole on Robertson's Ruby Flower imprint, but in its latest incarnation on Out Of Your Head Records, it has been supplemented by the second set, which is certainly worth having. While there's no ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Blue Vertical

Out Of Your Head Records
2021

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The Complete Night:...

Out Of Your Head Records
2020

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Soundpath

Clean Feed Records
2020

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Entity

Libra Records
2020

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The Windup

Clean Feed Records
2018

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Entity

From: Entity
By Dave Ballou

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