Homepage: Richard's Projects
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New solo album, "Amanesis"
| Click here to listen to "Amanesis" for free, or download, name-your-own price
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| Click Here to listen to "Axis Mundi" for free, or download, name-your-own price
| Fresh from the studio, FOUR new albums and TWO new meditations!
First: "Amanesis," a reworking of bits and pieces found on old tapes and drives, electronic loops, and other tools I use for composing. These are pieces that never made it to the bands, or never made it onto solo albums, for whatever reason. I have now turned them into complete songs. The lead parts are all played by me, on flutes, saxophones, the duduk, the EWI - electronic wind instrument, and so forth. Even some Tuvan throat singing. The link is above.
Second: "Walking Eagle," The new Walking Eagle is now available at the link below. This album, recorded with guitarist Dick O'Connell and percussionist Dugg Spalding, features flutes from around the world playing world jazz. Name your own price. Look for physical CDs in the late fall/early winter! The link is below the picture.
Third: "Yampah Impressions," My new solo woodwind album, inspired by and recorded in Glenwood Springs, Colorado is FREE and available from the link below the picture.
Fourth: "Axis Mundi - A Shamanic Journey Meditation," a new meditation album, featuring 5 meditations. Using vocal overtones, didgeridoo, the singing bowl and shamanic drums, there are 5 variations for different types of meditation and journeying. Click the link above. Currently available are shortened (30 minute) versions of the originals - which are 1 hour, 8 minutes, but which are too long to upload. I am working on schemes to make them available in their entirety.
And for meditations, there is "The Axis Mundi Kriya-Kundalini Meditation" on the Axis Mundi Album. This meditation helps raise energy and cleanse the chakras. Then there is the new "Fourth Dimension Ascension Meditation" (link below) that teaches one how to adapt to a higher level set of chakras to permanently raise your vibration. This meditation uses, as a background, Solfeggio frequencies with overtones for balancing and repairing DNA. A third meditation "The Axis Mundi Fourth Dimension Kriya-Kundalini" is forth-coming.
| Click here for The Free Fourth Dimension Ascension Meditation
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The new Walking Eagle, World Jazz album
| Download the NEW WALKING EAGLE CD here - name your own price.
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| Click here to download my new FREE solo woodwind album
| Transcript from B.A. (Be-Boppers Anonymous)
R: Hello, my name is Richard Ball, and I am a recovering be-bopper.
Members: (mutters smattering of applause)
R: Yes, I devoted most of my youth to learning to play fast scales, and the Charlie Parker Ominbook.
Members: (Grunts of recognition and acknowledgement)
Roy: So, if you are a be-bopper, then what’s the deal with all them world instruments and Native American Flute recordings and stuff?
R: So, I was a total be-bop head. That’s all I cared about and listened to... well, apart from a little Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane...
Members: (mutters of approval and understanding)
R: So, there I was, a pretty good bopper in my early 20s, and I could only find work in pit orchestras for musicals... and most of those gigs didn’t cover gas money, if they paid anything...
Members (grunts, groans)
R: So, when I was about 25, I had an opportunity to go work in Moscow, at the embassy for a couple years.
Nancy: As a be-bop sax player?
R: No, I was a laborer and driver... But it did give me the opportunity to travel all over Europe, The Soviet Union, The Eastern Bloc and Central Asia. While I was traveling, I quickly became interested in all the unusual instruments and music I came across. At that time, at least in The Soviet Union, the dollar was very strong, so I could buy an instrument or two, take a lesson here and there, and buy records in all the places we traveled.
Fred: Oh, I see...
R: It took years to integrate those sounds I heard into the music I was writing. For a long time, only jazz and blues came out. But I kept listening and messing around with the instruments. The first world instrument I really started to master was the penny whistle, and so I started played a combination of jazz and Celtic music.
Henry: But that doesn’t explain all that Native American Flute stuff you used to do.
R: That’s true. After I returned from Russia, I started spending my summers on The Navajo Reservation, hiking way back in the back country. It was during this time that I bought a very cheap, almost unplayable Native American Flute at a souvenir store. It took a surprisingly long time to learn to play, since it was so out of tune. But I developed some proficiency, and then was able to get a few more Native Flutes from some local flute makers that actually played in tune.
Members (grunts and groans, smattering of applause, general noise and confusion)
R: The Native Flute is when I made my break with be-bop. I started listening to R. Carlos Nakai, and took a couple group lessons with him, and started to explore music for a meditative purpose, rather than for showmanship. I spent a few years with The Native American flute really trying to slow down my whole life. My first Native Flute album, “Crow” shows that period. There are some places where I still play some fast, wild licks. It took a while to get them out of my system...
Members (a little applause...)
R: So, since that time, I have taken a lot of lessons on world instrument, especially the Hindustani Flute, the Shakuhachi (Japanese Flute) and Flamenco Guitar. I have applied a lot of these techniques and ideas to other instruments, and keep working on integrating music and rhythm of the world with jazz.
Reg: So, you gotta band, or something?
R: Yes, I actually play with a number of bands: Walking Eagle is a quartet that plays original world jazz. Walking Eagle is an acoustic group made up of members of the electric band Before the Rain. We have just put out our second album. And I play with Concept, featuring the guitarist/bass clarinetist Paul Mimlitsch, and sometimes with guitarist Howard Ostrow. Concept is an outlet for free improv music. Sometimes it sounds like classical music, sometimes like jazz, and sometimes some squeaking an squawking. I also have a couple of new projects I’m working on that haven’t gone public yet...
Nick: So, what about your solo stuff?
Members (inappropriate laughter)
R: I continue to explore jazz, world music and meditative sounds with my solo work. I have 9 or 10 solo albums that vary from some pretty out-there jazz (Puzzlements), to some not-so-out-there jazz (Amanesis) to solo flute (Crow, Yampah Impressions) to some light ensemble pieces, where I play all the instruments (Spirit/Nature) to meditations (Ghost, Axis-Mundi.)
Fred: So, is there a sampler album, or anything?
R: Yes. “The Art of the Flute” is a collection of pieces from the groups and my own work that features my flute playing. This will give people a little bit of a taste of my older work.
Nick: Oh, well, thanks, Richard. Welcome to Be-Boppers Anonymous... now let’s have someone who won’t talk so much....
Members (loud applause at the idea of someone talking less....)
| Listen to my music for free, or name-your-price to download!
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| Welcome to the sights, sounds and musings of me, Richard Ball. Here you can learn about my musical endeavors, listen to my albums free of charge (and download them, if you wish, naming your own price), hear my sounds currently in production, see some of my visual art, and read my ramblings. You can also see my performance schedule, view some old photos, and contact me by e-mail, if you wish to ask me questions, or care to hire my services. Thanks for taking the time to see what I do!
I am based out of the mountain town of Evergreen, Colorado. I have easy access to Denver and Boulder, and am available for functions in those areas
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