Jon Ballantyne

Jon Ballantyne, Brooklyn, 2000

Jon Ballantyne (born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a pianist and composer who resides in the New York area.

Career

Ballantyne started playing piano at an early age and began formal study at the age of six. His father, Fred, is a pianist and both parents are jazz enthusiasts and exposed him to the recordings of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Duke Ellington.

He studied classical piano and played in a garage-band when he was a teenager, as well as playing tenor saxophone and piano in high school concert and stage bands. He attended high school at City Park Collegiate Institute (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan).

Ballantyne was awarded a scholarship to North Texas State University (attending from 1982 to 1985) where he played in the One O'clock Lab Band.

In the fall of 1987, Ballantyne joined the Woody Herman Thundering Herd for an extensive tour of the U.S. He re-joined the band in the late 1990s for some European and United Kingdom tours, as well as performances in the Northeast, New England and Florida.

As a six-year resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn in the 1990s, he played afternoon jam sessions in his studio apartment with forward-looking musicians, most of them neighbors, such as Seamus Blake, Bill Carrothers, Phil Haynes, Donny McCaslin, Dave Pietro, Scott Neumann, Jay Rosen, Tony Scherr, Mark Turner, Elliot Zigmund, and Matt Wilson.

He has conducted educational clinics at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, McGill University, University of Toronto, Concordia University, and the University of Saskatchewan, among others.

From 1999 to 2006, Ballantyne led a quartet with bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, and saxophonist/bass clarinetist Douglas Yates, as well as a trio featuring Drew Gress and Gene Jackson. Ballantyne also played several solo piano concert tours in the 90's, 2000's and most recently, in 2014.

In 2013, Ballantyne toured Canada extensively with the Alan Jones Canadian All Star Sextet, featuring drummer Alan Jones (leader and compositions), Seamus Blake (tenor), Phil Dwyer (alto), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Brad Turner (trumpet, one city) and Tom Wakeling (bass).

Ballantyne performs often at noted jazz clubs in the Northeastern US, such as The Deer Head Inn (Delaware Water Gap), Small's (New York), Zinc Bar (New York), Cleopatra's Needle (New York), Mezzrow (New York), and Chris's Jazz Cafe (Philadelphia).

There were sold-out performances of the Bill Goodwin Trio, which Ballantyne is a member of, at Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York in early 2023.

Currently, Ballantyne plays in the Trios of Bill Goodwin (with bassist Evan Gregor), and Gene Perla (The Parker Trio, with drummer Adam Nussbaum). He also plays with guitarist Bill Washer as a duo called the "Mode for Joe Duo," which features the music of Joe Henderson, whom Washer played with from 1969 to 1972 and Ballantyne 1989–92. A live recording of the duo will be released in the fall of 2023 on the Vectordisc Records label.

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

Year recorded	Title	Label	Personnel/Notes
1987*	Trio Jon Ballantyne	Jazzimage	with Terry Clarke, Drums; Jim Vivian, Bass. *JUNO Award Nominated
1988	Sky Dance	Justin Time	Quartet, with Joe Henderson (tenor sax), Neil Swainson (bass), Jerry Fuller (drums) *JUNO Award Winner
1991	A Musing	Justin Time	Some tracks solo piano; most tracks duo, with Paul Bley (piano); some tracks duo with Dave Laing (drums)
1994	The Loose	Justin Time	Trio, with Drew Gress (bass), Billy Hart (drums)
1995	Trio Live	NY Jam	Trio, with Drew Gress (bass), Billy Hart (drums)
1997	Known/Unknown	NY Jam	Trio, with Drew Gress (bass), Gene Jackson (drums)
2000*	Round Again	NY Jam
2005	4tets + Dewey Redman	Real Artist Works	With Douglas Yates, Jeff Hirshfield, Gene Jackson, Boris Kozlov; Dewey Redman (sax) added on some tracks
2002	"The Banff Session"	Real Artist Works	With Boris Kozlov, Hugh Sicotte
2006*	Avenue Standard	Real Artist Works	Solo Piano *JUNO Award Winner
2006*	Ever Since Now	Real Artist Works	Solo Piano
2012*	Twenty Accident Free Workdays	Real Artist Works	With Hugh Sicotte *JUNO Award Nominated
2017	"Trio"	Vector Disk	With Bill Goodwin, leader, drums; Evan Gregor, bass
2020	"Duaxis"	Real Artist Works	With Devin Gray
2021	"The Parker Trio"	PM Records	with Gene Perla, Adam Nussbaum

Filmography

• In the Key of Eh! Canadian Jazz Piano (1996)
• DUOS: The Jazz Sessions (1999)
• SOLOS: The Jazz Sessions (Bravo! Canada, 2006)
• "Oh Canada": presenting Canadian Jazz Artists (PBS, 2016)

External links

• JonBallantyne.com
• Official Myspace Page