Japan’s leading jazz magazine Swing Journal hailed Dave Ballou on his SteepleChase debut CD (SCCD 31436 Amongst Ourselves) by saying “…here comes a new artist with solid beautiful sound and tremendous imagination and technique who can tell his own story…” But it also said, “…if you are not used to this type (free) of music, you may find it hard to follow…” - not on this his third release under his own name. Dave Ballou chose a quartet format with piano (George Colligan) and, besides his own compositions, some of the popular titles from the jazz repertoire letting us know that he belongs to a tradition.