Alex Bally

This article is about the musician Alex Bally. For other people, see Alexander Bálly .

Carl Alexander "Alex" Bally (born December 24, 1936 in Schönenwerd ) is a Swiss modern jazz drummer .

Live and act

After graduating from school in French-speaking Switzerland , Bally initially played with local musicians from the area around his home town in Schönenwerd, Aarau and Olten. He appeared in the trio of pianist Elsie Bianchi Brunner at the Atlantis in Basel. He was honored as a percussionist for the first time at the Zurich Jazz Festival . In the late 1950s he lived in Zurich , where he studied and took piano lessons at the conservatory; he became one of the permanent drummers at Café Africana . He was a member of the bands of Remo Rau , Hans Kennel , Kurt Weil and Pepe Lienhard , but also found the opportunity to jam with Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Barney Wilen , Joe Turner , Fernando Vicenzio and Franco Ambrosetti . He made guest appearances with the quintet by Remo Rau and Bruno Spoerri at the Lugano Jazz Festival and with the Swiss All Star Combo (with Hans Kennel tp, Freddy Meier ts, Nick Bertschinger p, Alby Cullaz b) at the Paris club Le Chat Qui Pêche . He then belonged to the club's house band for four years and accompanied guest soloists such as Woody Shaw , Chet Baker , Nathan Davis , Eric Dolphy , Donald Byrd and Herbie Hancock . Through the mediation of his Paris-based colleagues Kenny Clarke and Art Taylor , he won a Hall of Fame Scholarship from Down Beat Magazine with a stay at Berklee College of Music . After studying music, he moved to New York City ; he played in the quartet of Eddie Daniels and Roland Hanna and Charlie Haden; in the trio of jazz singer Chris Conners he appeared in 1969 at the Toronto Jazz Festival.

Back in Zurich he helped set up the concert organization Modern Jazz Zurich . Between 1970 and 1974 he took part in numerous live jazz concerts on Swiss radio , played in Irène Schweizer's trio and was a member of Hans Koller's Free Sound . He played with Peter Giger and Marc Hellman in the Drum Circus , which also included the Swiss dialect rocker Polo Hofer . Then he went to Germany, where together with Frank St. Peter he led the group Music Community in which Lee Harper , Leszek Zadlo , Rudi Fuesers , Hermann Breuer , Dave King , Larry Porter and Rocky Knauer played and with which he played at numerous jazz festivals participated in Europe. He also played with the Stuttgart jazz crew around Frédéric Rabold , Bernd Konrad , Paul Schwarz and Jan Jankeje . Most recently he was a member of the German political rock group Eulenspygel before going back to Switzerland. With Hans Kennel and Paul Haag he led the group Jazz Community . The band was considered the best Swiss jazz group in 1979 and performed a. a. at the Jazz Festival Montreux . He also ran the Paiste Drummer Service with Fredy Studer and gave lessons at the Lucerne Jazz School . In 1983 he founded the Swiss Drum Orchestra with, among others, Michal Urbaniak , Urszula Dudziak , Vladislav Sendecki , Tom van der Geld and Kenneth Johnson and toured successfully throughout Europe for 4 years.

Bally now lives in Portugal and works as a freelance musician. Together with Gabriele Comeglio he leads the group Milano Jazz Community , which also performs as a concert band with international guest soloists such as Slide Hampton , Mauro Parodi , Emilio Soana , Mario Rusca and Riccardo Fioravanti .

Discography

• Jazz Community (Bellaphon, 1979)
• Music Community (Amayana, 1975)
• Hans Koller Free Sound: Phoenix (MPS, 1972, with Albert Mayer , Adelhard Roidinger )
• Jan Jankeje: Sokol (jazzpoint records, 1976)
• Swiss Drum Orchestra: Live at Montreux (alexbally-music)

literature

• Bruno Spoerri (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Jazz. CD supplement to: Bruno Spoerri (Ed.): Jazz in Switzerland. History and stories. Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0739-6 .

Web links

• Web presence
• Drummerworld