Jeff Ballard Trio at Kuumbwa Jazz Center

Jeff Ballard’s expressive and dynamic drumming always enhances the music. From his earliest gigs with pianist Smith Dobson and music legend Ray Charles, to his long association with Chick Corea, and the co-op trio Fly (with Larry Grenadier and Mark Turner), Ballards’s percussive abilities have been very much in-demand among the jazz elite. Now, he leads his own trio, featuring guitarist Lionel Loueke and saxophonist Miguel Zenón, with an eccentric, eclectic repertoire: Gershwin, Monk, Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Middle Eastern melodies, even a tune by rock band Queens of the Stone Age, all imaginatively re-worked...

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Jeff Ballard’s expressive and dynamic drumming always enhances the music. From his earliest gigs with pianist Smith Dobson and music legend Ray Charles, to his long association with Chick Corea, and the co-op trio Fly (with Larry Grenadier and Mark Turner), Ballards’s percussive abilities have been very much in-demand among the jazz elite. Now, he leads his own trio, featuring guitarist Lionel Loueke and saxophonist Miguel Zenón, with an eccentric, eclectic repertoire: Gershwin, Monk, Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Middle Eastern melodies, even a tune by rock band Queens of the Stone Age, all imaginatively re-worked. Their debut recording Time’s Tales received 4 ½ stars in the latest DownBeat.

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