Jazz Articles about Dave Ballou

About Dave Ballou

Album Review

Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio +1: Blue Vertical

Read "Blue Vertical" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 27, 2021

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 ...

Extended Analysis

Soundpath

by Victor L. Schermer
January 2, 2021

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 Chicago, he grasped music from its roots, and so was able to ...

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

by John Sharpe
July 17, 2020

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 ...

Album Review

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

Read "The Complete Night: Live At The Stone NYC" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 14, 2020

Listening to The MacroQuarktet calls to mind comedians Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters. Did they warm up before an evening of improvisational comedy? Once on stage or a TV talk show, instantaneously they were 'on,' firing a superabundance of thoughts, jokes, impressions, etc at their audience. It is the same for the two improvised music sets by this 'on' quartet. Recorded in 2007 and originally released as a single disc on Herb Robertson's Ruby Flower Records label as ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 4, 2020

Pianist / composer Satoko Fujii has staked out her ground as one of the most original voices in jazz—or in any artform, for that matter. She has released more than eighty albums, beginning with her 1995 debut, Something About Water (Libra Records), a piano duet set with Paul Bley. She tours relentlessly. She records in every ensemble format imaginable: solos, duos, trios, quartets and big bands. Lots of big bands, based in Berlin, Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya, New York.

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 26, 2020

As she did in 2019, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii—an artist at home in many formations—opens the new decade with an orchestra recording. Entity, from Fujii's Orchestra New York, is the eleventh release from the ensemble that has remained largely intact for almost twenty-three years. It is an all-star collective that includes saxophonists Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin and Tony Malaby, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Herb Robertson, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Ches Smith. Entity has its moments of tranquility but ...

Album Review

Dave Ballou: The Windup

Read "The Windup" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
February 15, 2019

Impegnato sia sul versante del jazz che della musica classica e barocca, Dave Ballou sfoggia un timbro pulito e cristallino, un fraseggio impeccabile. Nell'ambito afroamericano il suo lavoro ha spostato volentieri le proprie coordinate, passando dal moderno mainstream allo scandaglio dell'improvvisazione libera e della composizione aperta. Nel periodo a cavallo tra i nostri due secoli, Ballou ha pubblicato numerosi lavori per l'etichetta SteepleChase, che conosciamo per la linea tradizionalista, pur con qualche attenzione verso alcuni grandi sperimentatori, tra cui Paul ...