Dave Ballou (born April 22, 1963, in Peace Dale, Rhode Island) is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and educator. Ballou started playing the trumpet at age 11 and later earned a bachelor’s degree from the Berklee College of Music (1986) and a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire (1992). Ballou initiated a professional career in the mid-1980s with the Either/Orchestra and the Ken Schaphorst Big Band. During the early 1990s, he performed with the ensemble Orange Then Blue. Ballou collaborated with musicians including Judi Silvano, Steve LaSpina, Michael Formanek, Maria Schneider, and Mark Murphy. His discography as a leader began in 1998 and included the SteepleChase albums The Floating World (2000), Regards (2005), and Insistence (2007). Ballou served as a professor of music at Towson University in Maryland, where he coordinated the jazz and commercial music division and taught jazz history, theory, and arrangement.
