Jeff Ballard

JEFF BALLARD born in Newport Beach Calif. Sept 1963 is a drummer who "paints with rhythm and sound". There is a wide world of influences in his approach to playing the drums. Sounds, Silences, Spaces, and Gravities prevail.
After playing with Ray Charles from 1988 -1990, he came to New York in 1990. He began playing with: Buddy Montgomery, Lou Donaldson, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Avishai Cohen, Jason Lindner, Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Mike Stern, Ben Allison, etc. A few years later he started to play regularly with Danilo Perez in 1998, later in Chick Corea's bands Origin and The New Trio from 1998- 2003; Joshua Redman's Elastic Band 2004 - 2005; the collective group FLY; and recently with The Brad Mehldau Trio 2005 - 2012. As of 2012 he has joined the San Francisco Jazz Collective. He has recorded with almost all of the musicians listed above.


Since 2003 he has been a co-leader of the collective group FLY with Larry Grenadier and Mark Turner. They have three recordings: Fly (Savoy) 2004; Sky And Country (ECM) 2009; and Year Of The Snake (ECM) 2012.


In 2006 he began THE JEFF BALLARD TRIO with Lionel Loueke and Miguel Zenon
This trio posses a unique sound which comes from their distinctly different cultural backgrounds joining in the common ground of playing improvised music. That there is no bass player in the group and added by the fact that the drums are all made with real animal skins provides a very special flavor to the music. The sound of the band is an earthy corporal organic one. There is a high element of rhythmic complexities in everything they play. The repertoire is as diverse as their backgrounds: Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Queens Of The Stone Age, Bartok, song bird melodies, as well as their own compositions. Jeff is from Santa Cruz Calif, USA, Lionel Loueke Benin, Africa, and Miguel from Puerto Rico.

*Of special note is the drum set used in this group. It is made up of drums all over the world: India, South America, Pakistan and Africa. The snare is from North America. The cymbals are Turkish. The bells are from Tibet as well as from Maine.

His most recent project JEFF BALLARD FAIRGROUNDS is a constantly changing configuration. It is basically an extension of all the kinds of music he loves to play, played with the musicians he loves.

Jeffballard.com