Jon Balke

Jon Balke (born 1955) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer currently known for his Magnetic North Orchestra.

He began with classical piano, but switched to blues at 12, though today he performs within several genres. At the age of 18 he joined Arild Andersen's quartet. By the mid-1980s he worked on his own and would become one of Norway's leading jazz composers. He was active in the groups of Radka Toneff and in the Afrofusion group E´olén before joining Oslo 13 and Masqualero in the early 80s. From 1989 he focused on his own projects, such as Jøkleba (with Audun Kleive and Per Jørgensen) and the still existing Magnetic North Orchestra. In 2002 he formed the percussion group Batagraf and in 2007 the concept work Siwan with singer Amina Alaoui. He is also the creator of a series of multimedia concerts at Vossajazz festival, labeled Ekstremjazz. The concerts involve various practitioners of extreme sports, such as parachuting, paragliding, hanggliding, and bmx biking.

Discography

• On and On (Odin, 1991)
• Nonsentration (ECM, 1992)
• Further (ECM, 1993)
• Rotor (Curling Legs, 1998)
• Solarized (Emarcy, 1999)
• Kyanos with the Magnetic North Orchestra (ECM, 2002)
• Diverted Travels (ECM, 2004)
• Book of Velocities (ECM, 2007)
• Siwan (ECM, 2009)
• Say and Play (ECM, 2011)

With Arild Andersen

• Clouds in My Head (ECM, 1975)

With Mathias Eick

• The Door (ECM, 2007)

External links

• Jon Balke's website
• Batagraf official site
• Siwan official site