APRIL IS JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH, and Blues Alley is doing its part by filling its schedule with school groups and big bands.

But on Wednesday, the Georgetown club will host its most interesting booking in ages.

Ballrogg is a lovely, spacey Norwegian chamber-jazz duo featuring Klaus Ellerhusen Holm (saxophones, clarinets) and Roger Arntzen (double bass). Both musicians are virtually unknown in the U.S., but a little anonymity — or bad weather — wouldn't scare Ballrogg into staying home.

"It's raining like hell," Arntzen said from the passenger seat of a car helmed by Holm. "And it's windy, too."

The two were trekking from Chicago to Columbia, S.C. — that's 800 miles — as part of a six-show tour Ballrogg self-booked in the U.S. They'll then make a 500 mile drive from South Carolina to play Blues Alley.

"I think it's gonna be cool — unless they throw us off stage," Arntzen said with a laugh when asked about playing one of the East Coast's nicest jazz clubs. "I've been here with In the Country, and it's been really great." (In the Country played on the roof of House of Sweden as part of D.C.'s Nordic Jazz festival last June.)

It would be easy to say Ballrogg's adventurous nature is reflected in its music, but it does take artistic guts to approach the compositions of saxophonists Eric Dolphy ("Out to Lunch," "Hat and Beard," "Gazzelloni," "Straight Up and Down") and Ornette Coleman ("Lorraine") without a rhythm section. Those are two of the composers Ballrogg covers on its new self-titled CD, out on the Norwegian boutique label Bolange. "Emphasis" by clarinetist-saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre — a chamber-jazz icon — also appears on the album, and four works by Ballrogg — "Sex Spy," "Weissbein," "Ball" and "Rogg" — round out the disc.

"We had been working together in a quartet before that — Damp," Arntzen said of how the two musicians came together. "Klaus had substituted for Jorgen [Munkeby] on a big tour, and we had some parts doing improvised duo portions, and it was kind of cool and we wanted to do something more about it."

"We both have been fans of Eric Dolphy for a long time," Arntzen added. "Really digging the record 'Out to Lunch' in particular."

The duo named itself, in part, after the Balrog creature from "Lord of the Rings," but this Ballrogg only shares one similarity with the mythical beast.

"The monster is living really, really deep [underground]," Arntzen said. "If you really follow it, we're working really down deep as well."

» Blues Alley, 3 Wisconsin Ave. NW; Wed., $20, 8 p.m. & 10 p.m.; 202-337-4141.

» Read our profile of In the Country from June 2007.
» Read our commentary about House of Sweden after the Nordic Jazz festival.

Photos by Guri Dahl

Posted by Christopher Porter at 12:32 AM on April 2, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Foggy Bottom , Music , The District , Top Stories