• 01. Ball Play 05:40
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 02. Two Pages 10:41
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 03. Star Dust 04:25
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Hoagy Carmichael, Paris Mitchell
Published by EMI Mills Music, Inc.
• 04. First Flow 09:07
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 05. Concentracznyi 05:48
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 06. Song of Trust 03:04
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 07. Minor Question 02:54
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 08. Ninghe 04:34
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Xavier Montsalvatge
Published by Southern Music Co.
• 09. The Ice That Breaks 04:52
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 10. These Foolish Things 03:08
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Eric Maschwitz, Jack Strachey
Published by Boosey and Hawkes, Inc.
• 11. Movements in Style 03:21
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 12. Sophisticated Lady 04:46
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Duke Ellington
Published by EMI Mills Music, Inc.
• 13. Jazz Blues 03:57
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 14. Norwegian Summer 05:08
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Mika Pohjola
Published by Mika Music
• 15. What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love 03:42
Performed by Mika Pohjola, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
Music by Burt Bacharach
Published by Casa David

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• Mika Pohjola - piano
• Drew Gress - bass
• Mark Ferber - drums

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A collaboration with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Mark Ferber, pianist Mika Pohjola offers a follow-up to his Sound of Village duo improvisations. Pohjola features a free jazz vein of the 1960s, known as proprietary territory of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Paul Bley and Rashied Ali. Coupled with original compositions by Pohjola, Xavier Montsalvatge and Burt Bacharach, Ball Play is a one-hour long enjoyment which naturally spans several decades of musical expression.

"Ball Play opens with the title-track ... continues with a more original-spirited Two Pages, which repeats and develops a short motive in the first half, and then gradually moves toward a free flow of thought. The standards, Star Dust, These Foolish Things and the Burt Bacharach original What The World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love are among the best renditions on the album, and this is where all three musicians are fully engaged in the twisting of the familiar source material. Pohjola's brightest solo contributions can be heard on "Song of Trust" and the strange traditional-oriented Jazz Blues. An oddity on the album is the Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge song Ninghe, which is played without alteration from the original." -Anderson Riley

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Jazz Trio Album "Ball Play" runs twisted wraps by Pohjola, Drew Gress and Mark Ferber

New York jazz musicians, pianist Mika Pohjola, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Mark Ferber, are authors to fifteen tracks of trio music on their Ball Play, a release which exemplifies a trend in modern jazz piano trios on the scene, namely a piano-driven engine, with an interactive drummer of freer... Full Story

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