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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

Samo Salamon Ra Kalam Bob Moses Orchestra: Dream Suites vol. 1

Read "Dream Suites vol. 1" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Basta scorrere i nomi dei musicisti coinvolti nell'operazione per capire di quale rappresentatività per una data scena della più creativa e verace attualità jazzistica “unga" questo assolutamente notevole album cofirmato dal chitarrista sloveno Samo Salamon e dal batterista newyorchese Bob Moses. Lo compongono tre soli ampi brani (dai tredici minuti alla mezz'ora appena scarsa) incisi nel novembre 2023 e fondati sulla pratica della libera improvvisazione (non si parla neppure di conduction, in questo caso), raggiungendo una dimensione formale assolutamente invidiabile, ...

Album Review

Tom Teasley, Dave Ballou: Lunch Break

Read "Lunch Break" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Il batterista e polipercussionista (nonché qua e là cantante scat, come in questo album accade per esempio in “Riqq Talk") Tom Teasley e il trombettista Dave Ballou si misurano in un tête-à-tête di poco meno di quaranta minuti che rivela un solido interplay, il piacere di suonare assieme facendo evolvere (sgorgare) la musica in maniera assolutamente naturale, senza fretta e senza pressioni di sorta (sarà magari anche--come ci viene detto espressamente, e come del resto “ufficializzato" dal titolo stesso del ...

1
Album Review

Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry

Read "Barcode Poetry" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Pianist Michael McNeill approaches music like an abstract painter. Thus his work is dynamic, multi-hued, and textured. The captivating Barcode Poetry, his fourth album as a leader, finds him expanding his palette with unorthodox instrumentation. His quartet includes, in addition to trumpeter Dave Ballou and percussionist Shelly Purdy, innovative pedal guitarist Susan Alcorn whose passing a few months after this music was recorded adds poignancy. “Timeigrant" opens with McNeill's percussive chords in a dramatic tone. Ballou echoes the ...

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Album Review

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10: A Beautiful Day, Revisited

Read "A Beautiful Day, Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Registrato dal vivo al Birdland dal 24 al 26 gennaio 2002, il materiale di questo doppio CD (nonché doppio vinile) raggiunge oggi i quasi 83 minuti di durata, aggiungendo, rispetto all'edizione originaria uscita pochi mesi dopo il concerto, un'alternate take inedita del brano che intitola l'album e una versione ampliata di “11/8," riposizionando nel contempo i nove brani complessivi in quanto a “ordine di apparizione." Ne vien fuori un'opera che possiamo tranquillamente definire monumentale, anche proprio per la ...

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Album Review

Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry

Read "Barcode Poetry" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Pianist Michael McNeill has pursued a number of projects since his debut release, Passageways, in 2013, each of which has defined his distinctive niche as a musician informed by both avant-garde and conventional jazz. On Barcode Poetry, it is the former impulse that prevails, as McNeill and his esteemed colleagues--Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Dave Ballou on trumpet, and Shelly Purdy on vibes and percussion--engage in lengthy studies in texture and abstraction rather than straightforward melodic expression.

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Album Review

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus Ten: A Beautiful Day, Revisited

Read "A Beautiful Day, Revisited" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The heyday of pianist Andrew Hill (1931-2007) happened during his hang with Blue Note Records, where he released ten albums between 1963 and 1970, including 1964's Black Fire, a splendid quartet session featuring saxophonist Joe Henderson; 1964's Point Of Departure), that featured a freewheeling sextet that included Henderson, multiple reedist Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Kenny Dorham; to Passing Ships (1969), with an exuberant multi-horn group that included trumpeter Woody Shaw, trombonist Julian Priester and flutist Joe Farrell. For those with ...

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Album Review

Lisa Rich: Long As You're Living

Read "Long As You're Living" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


With Long As You're Living ace jazz vocalist m: Lisa Rich and a team of New York A-listers soar across a dozen tracks of superior jazz. The album, her first since Highwire (Tritone Records, 2019) is a tour de force of musical talents and it once again validates Rich as one of our finest vocal artists. The title track opener, “Long As You're Living" hits with a hip 5/4 up-tempo take on the classic testament to optimism. Rich ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lunch Break

Self Produced
2025

buy

Dream Suites vol. 1

Samo Records
2025

buy

Long As You're Living

Tritone Records
2024

buy

Barcode Poetry

Infrasonic Press
2024

buy

A Beautiful Day,...

Palmetto Records
2024

buy

Blue Vertical

Out Of Your Head Records
2021

buy

Tips in Baghdad

From: Lunch Break
By Dave Ballou

A Beautiful Day

From: A Beautiful Day, Revisited
By Dave Ballou

Entity

From: Entity
By Dave Ballou

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