Trumpeter Dave Ballou is one of the few contemporary players who straddles the line between mainstream or progressive jazz and creative improvised musics. Ballou originally attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1986 before achieving his master's at the University of New Hampshire in 1991. Since graduation, Ballou has been very active on the East Coast scene and in Europe and Japan, playing solo and with small and large ensembles, big bands, and symphonies. He has a small but growing discography as a leader almost exclusively for the Danish-based Steeplechase label. Ballou has worked prominently with Orange Then Blue, Gunther Schuller, Michael Formanek, Maria Schneider, Andrew Hill, Satoko Fujii, Dave Liebman, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano, Michael Jefry Stevens, John Hollenbeck, Oliver Lake, Denman Maroney, Nate Wooley, Jacob Garchik, Tom Rainey, Rabih Abou-Khalil, and Andy Biskin. In recent years Ballou has been incorporating electronics into his sound, and has been teaching as an assistant professor at Towson University in Maryland. ~ Michael G. Nastos