Jon Ballantyne
Jon Ballantyne (born 1963 in 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 Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Duke Ellington. His mother took him to an Oscar Peterson concert when he was six-years-old. He studied piano and played in a garage-band when he was a teenager. He attended high school at City Park  Collegiate Institute, (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) and graduated in 1981. He attended North Texas State University, where he played with visiting musicians such as Nat Adderley, Michael Brecker, Ron Carter, Peter Erskine, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Bob Mintzer, and Emily Remler. At the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, he worked played with John Abercrombie, Karl Berger, Ed Blackwell, Steve Coleman, Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Eddie Marshall, Julian Priester, Cecil Taylor, Don Thompson, and Kenny Wheeler. In New York City, he studied with Kenny Barron, Richie Beirach, Joanne Brackeen, Hal Galper, and Barry Harris. He has performed with or recorded with  Pepper Adams, Krister Andersson, Reid Anderson, Ed Bickert, Paul Bley, Don Braden, Terry Clarke, Avishai Cohen, Al Cohn, Scott Colley, Buddy DeFranco, Ray Drummond, Phil Dwyer, Charles Fambrough, Jerry Fuller, George Garzone, Mick Goodrick, Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Goodwin, Drew Gress, Al Grey, Craig Handy, Billy Hart, Roy Haynes, Joe Henderson, Joe LaBarbera, Joe Lovano, Mingus Big Band, Red Mitchell, Gene Perla, Ben Perowsky, P. J. Perry, Rich Perry, Dewey Redman, Shorty Rogers, Jim Rotondi, Richard Stoltzman, Ben Street, Neil Swainson, Clark Terry, and Phil Woods. As a six-year resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn in the 1990s, he played afternoon  jam sessions in his studio apartment with young musicians, most of them neighbors, such as Seamus Blake, Bill Carrothers, Phil Haynes, Donny McCaslin, Dave Pietro, Jay Rosen, Tony Scherr, Mark Turner, and Matt Wilson. He has conducted educational clinics at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and at the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, McGill University, University of Toronto, and Concordia University. He leads a quartet with bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, and saxophonist/bass clarinetist Douglas Yates. Awards and honors. He received Juno Awards for the albums "Sky Dance" and "Avenue Standard". He and  fellow Canadian musician Hugh Sicotte released an experimental album (delving into Hugh's real-time laptop-programs manipulations of Jon's playing of acoustic, electric and prepared piano) in 2012 called "Twenty Accident Free Workdays", which was nominated for a 2013 Juno Award. Discography. An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.