Fairgrounds / Jeff Ballard

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 realizing 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.

Price: $22.98