Jeff Ballard (musician)


Jeff Ballard is an American jazz drummer from Santa Cruz, California. He has played with Ray Charles and Pat Metheny and plays periodically with Chick Corea in many groups such as Origin and the Chick Corea New Trio. He also played with many New York-based jazz musicians such as Reid Anderson, Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Miguel Zenon and Eli Degibri. He has also played with the Joshua Redman Elastic Band.
He is a member of the Brad Mehldau Trio and co-leader of Fly, a collective trio with Mark Turner and Larry Grenadier and leads Jeff Ballard Trio and Jeff Ballard Fairgrounds.

Biography

Jeff Ballard was born 17 September 1963 in southern California but grew up and studied in Santa Cruz, California. He began playing drums at the age of 14, attended Cabrillo College where he studied music theory, and toured with many bands, all the time absorbing influences and developing his own approach to drumming. He met Larry Grenadier in 1982, with whom he plays in both Fly and Brad Mehldau Trio. At the age of 24 he went on the road with Ray Charles for eight months every year 1988-1990 playing in Charles' Big Band. He moved to New York in 1990, where he started collaborating with Ben Monder, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner and Ben Allison. Later on in New York he started to play with Avishai Cohen and Chick Corea. Ballard started the band Fly with Larry Grenadier and Mark Turner around the time Ballard was working with Corea. In 2005 Brad Mehldau sat in with Fly trio for one performance in New York city and after that invited Ballard to play in his own trio, with whom he has played ever since. He formed the Jeff Ballard Trio with Lionel Loueke and Miguel Zenon, releasing Time’s Tales as the recording debut for Ballard as leader in 2014. His second album as leader is Fairgrounds released January 2019 with Lionel Loueke, Kevin Hays and Reid Anderson with guest appearances from Mark Turner and Chris Cheek.

Awards

Discography

As a leader or co-leader

With Jeff Ballard Trio including Lionel Loueke & Miguel Zenón
With Fly including Mark Turner & Larry Grenadier
With Avishai Cohen
With Chick Corea
With Brad Mehldau
With Pat Metheny
With Ted Nash
With Joshua Redman
With Kurt Rosenwinkel