Jazz Articles about Jon Balke

Jon Balke / Batagraf: Statements

by Budd Kopman
March 26, 2006

Batagraf is less a group or band than a collection of like-minded musicians who have come together to explore ideas related to rhythm and language. Made up of four percussionists and five vocalist/reciters, along with but two “normal" instrumentalists (trumpet and alto saxophone) and Balke himself playing electronic keyboard and percussion, plus some vocals and sound processing, one might think that the music would be percussion heavy. That is not the case, and, if you can suppress ...