Title: BALL PLAY
Year: 2003
Category: AVANTGARDE,PIANO
- 1. Ball Play 05:34
- 2. Two Pages 10:37
- 3. The True Crest 07:18
- 4. Eclectic Conspiracy Mode 09:07
- 5. These Foolish Things 03:05
- 6. Song of Trust 02:59
- 7. A Sunny Day 03:38
- 8. Star Dust 04:23
- 9. Humpty Dumpty 00:45
- 10. Jazz Blues 03:57
- 11. Concentracznyi 05:51
- 12. Minor Question 02:56
- 13. The Ice That Breaks 04:51
- 14. Old and Grumpy 05:56
- 15. Ninghe 04:32
- 16. Movements in Style 03:19
- 17. Sophisticated Lady 04:46
- 18. Norwegian Summer 05:06
- 19. What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love 03:42
- Mika Pohjola - piano
Drew Gress - bass
Mark Ferber - drums
BALL PLAY
by Mika Pohjola with Drew Gress, Mark Ferber
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.