Ronnie Ball

For the British Police and Crime Commissioner, see Ron Ball. For the American thriller and suspense writer, see Ron Clark Ball.

Ronald "Ronnie" Ball (December 22, 1927 – 1984) was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger, born in Birmingham, England.

Ball moved to London in 1948, and in the early 1950s he worked both as a bandleader and under Ronnie Scott, Tony Kinsey, Victor Feldman, and Harry Klein. In 1952 he moved to New York City and studied with Lennie Tristano; in the 1950s and 1960s he worked extensively with well-known jazz personnel. Among the musicians Ball played with are Chuck Wayne (1952), Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz (1953–55), Kenny Clarke, Hank Mobley, Art Pepper, J.J. Johnson (1956), Kai Winding (1956, 1958), Warne Marsh,(1956–57), Buddy Rich (1958), Gene Krupa (1958), Roy Eldridge (1959) and Chris Connor (1961–63). Ball plays on tracks 1–12 of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marshe compilation Intuition with Ted Brown (ts), George Tucker (b), and Jeff Morton (d), recorded in Los Angeles in October 1956, now on Capitol CDP 7243 8 52771 2 2.

Discography

With Roy Eldridge

• Swingin' on the Town (Verve, 1960)

References

Footnotes

Further reading

• Ronnie Ball at Allmusic
• Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford, 1999, p. 34.