Jeff Ballard makes music that feels like the 21st century – open, fluid and ever-developing - a sound informed by jazz but truly coming to life where musical worlds collide: acoustic and electric, swinging and ambient, analog and digital, accessible and experimental.
With Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, Kevin Hays on keyboards and vocals and Reid Anderson on electronics, the album also features saxophonists Mark Turner and Chris Cheek, Pete Rende on keyboards, who also recorded and mixed the album, with mastering by Nate Smith. This is a potent combination of musicians who revere the past while realising that art is always made in the present tense; they grew up versed in deep traditions but are keen to blur boundaries between genres. Jazz, rock, electronica and West African music all figure in the shape-shifting, cross-cultural sound of this dream band.
This release marks a significant signing for Edition Records, as label boss Dave Stapleton explains; To be able to work with Jeff on his album is both humbling and hugely exciting. Not only is he regarded as one of the greatest drummers in Jazz, and he's worked with some of the most celebrated players in this music, but he’s both a musician and a man of deep integrity and trust with endless enthusiasm and passion. Edition is a label growing in a very changeable industry; Jeff’s natural tendency to trust, and his desire to work together on building audiences, perfectly fits with our own vision of working with our artists in a very open and collaborative way. We’re incredibly excited to start work on this great music. I’ve no doubt it’s going to be a lot of fun’.
Fairgrounds will be released on 25th January 2019
