Ronald "Ronnie" Ball (December 22, 1927 – October 1984) was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger, born in Birmingham, England. He was an underrated pianist whose deep talent deserved, to many jazz fans, wider recognition.
Ronnie played local gigs from the age of fifteen before moving to London in 1948 with Tony Kinsey and worked with Reggie Goff's Sextet as well as leading his own trio. He joined Cab Kaye in 1949
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before working on the Queen Mary on the transatlantic cruise run to New York from 1949 to 1951, studying with Lennie Tristano on New York stopovers.
before working on the Queen Mary on the transatlantic cruise run to New York from 1949 to 1951, studying with Lennie Tristano on New York stopovers.He had become fascinated with the individual approach to jazz development favoured by pianist Lennie Tristano and had actually had an opportunity to study with Tristano while working on the cruise liners.
In London he worked as part of the house trio at the Studio 51 club, where at one time or another, he accompanied virtually all of the leading British modern jazzmen. He recorded with many of them and made a few records under his own name.
In 1952 he decided to leave the United Kingdom, following in the footsteps of George Shearing, for New York. He wanted to work with followers of Lennie Tristano who's piano playing was such a big influence on him. Ball was hospitalized in 1953 but by 1954 he was working and recording with alto player Lee Konitz, another Tristano follower.
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In 1956 he began to work with tenor sax player Warne Marsh, also a Tristano follower, and made several important records with Marsh in the period to 1960. In the late '50s he worked in the swing drummer Gene Krupa's Trio and the Roy Eldridge Quartet as well as touring with Jazz at the Philharmonic and Buddy Rich.
From 1961 to '63 he sometimes accompanied singer Chris Connor and recorded with her on several occasions.He made only a handful of records in London and very little of this is available on CD. However, his work with Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh is available in the UK on CD.
In the 1960s and '70s he worked mainly in New York before quitting playing to work doing transcriptions for a music publisher until his death in October, 1984, NYC; aged 56.
(Edited from henrybebop.co.uk)