Jazz Articles about Jon Ballantyne

The Saskatchewan All Star Big Band: Saskatchewan Suite

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2021

On Saskatchewan Suite, composer/arranger Fred Stride and the twenty-member Saskatchewan All Star Big Band have combined to paint a luminous and colorful portrait of that western Canadian province, canvassing 150 years of its history in eight picturesque movements that describe in musical terms the land itself, its indigenous peoples, newcomers from Europe and elsewhere, its recognition in 1905 as a province, the importance of various sports to Saskatchewan's inhabitants, and the legacy of jazz as an essential part of its ...

Jon Ballantyne: Known/Unknown

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1999

Jon Ballantyne is thick. You hear great rumbles of piano, fingers darting to hit distant notes, somehow laid-back and intense at the same time. It’s an edgy sound, similar to some but copying none. It’s hard to describe, but the album title does it as well as anything.

“No Blues” is the title, but Jon’s version barely mentions the theme. His fingers walk up the keyboard, waves of sound march in patterns, and a two-finger twiddle is enhanced by slamming ...