Mika Pohjola
Encyclopedia
Mika PohjolaMika Pohjola ( (born December 1, 1971) is a Finnish
-born jazz
pianist
and composer
, who resides in New York City
. He is one of the most prolific Scandinavia
n jazz musicians in his generation.
, Finland
, and grew up in the neighboring city of Vantaa
. He received his formal education in a Steiner school, where his first instrument was violin
. He then studied drums, and in 1979 piano and basic music theory with his father, Heikki Pohjola, who is a notable Finnish jazz guitarist
. In 1981, young Pohjola entered the Helsinki cathedral boy choir, Cantores Minores
under the direction of the German immigrant, Heinz Hofmann. The following year, Pohjola entered the Vantaa Conservatory in classical piano, music theory, counterpoint and composition. He also started playing jazz, and improvise freely. His early classical influences were Claude Debussy
, Edvard Grieg
and Johann Sebastian Bach
, and some Finnish prominent composers, such as Aarre Merikanto
. Pohjola was introduced to the music of Art Tatum
, Charlie Parker
and Oscar Peterson
by his father, who played his large record collection at home. Pohjola performed music by Mozart
, Beethoven
and Debussy at regional recitals and received a shared second prize in the classical piano competition of Vantaa in 1987, and represented his city and the conservatory at the Ilmari Hannikainen
Piano Competition.
, Sweden
to study jazz and classical music at the Södra Latin Music Gymnasium. It was in Stockholm where he met his mentor and long-time friend, jazz pianist Alvaro Is Rojas, who taught him piano improvisation
, jazz harmony
and ear-training for five years, spanning his high school years and academic studies at the Royal Swedish College of Music. Pohjola received a Master's Degree in Jazz Improvisation and Education at age 20 in the Spring of 1992. His senior recital included his first recorded adult compositions, after which he was invited to join STIM
, the collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers of Sweden. He also made his first radio appearance for the Swedish Radio in 1991.
, Massachusetts
to study under a scholarship at Berklee College of Music
. His continued studies were also supported by his Swedish college, where he had performed his studies with a Summa cum laude. His Berklee professors included Herb Pomeroy
, Gary Burton
, Phil Wilson, Ed Bedner, and Hal Crook
. It was at Berklee where Pohjola met several of his performing and recording collaborators of the 1990s and 2000s, among them Jill Walsh, Johanna Grüssner, Fernando Huergo
, Matt Penman, Bruno Råberg
, Roberto Dani and Mick Goodrick
. Pohjola graduated from Berklee with honors and several prizes in 1994. That same year he recorded Myths and Beliefs (GM Recordings), produced by Gunther Schuller
.
, who was a student of the legendary Lennie Tristano
. Pohjola performed in the late 1990s at New York clubs Blue Note
, Birdland
, the Five Spot, Smalls, The Jazz Standard and Visiones. His collaborators included Chris Cheek
, Mark Turner
, Miguel Zenón
, Ben Monder
, Drew Gress
, Jeff Williams, Jochen Rückert, Matt Wilson
and Mark Ferber. Pohjola started touring Europe regularly, mostly as a bandleader and composer where he performed with his New York-based ensembles. Pohjola was invited to Ukraine in 1999, 2001 and 2002 as the cultural representative of the Finnish Foreign Ministry. As a counterbalance to his quartet, he formed a freely improvising
duo, Sound of Village, with Yusuke Yamamoto
. Their home became the Knitting Factory
in New York City, but they also did two notable appearances at Steinway Hall
. In 2000, Sound of Village recorded its self-titled album. Their tours included appearances at several jazz festivals in Scandinavia and Japan.
music songbook by Tove Jansson
and Erna Tauro
. Moomin Voices was released in two versions (2003 in Swedish; 2005 in Finnish). The follow-up album, A Lark in the Snowstorm (2006), featured Pohjola's original-minded arrangements of legendary tangos.
, and in the Boston-period Johanna Grüssner, with whom he recorded an extended release Swedish Traditional Songs (2006). Pohjola has performed regularly with Nashville-based vocalist Jill Walsh since the late 1990s and released three albums.
Summer Music Camp.
since 1997, and a major visiting artist at Berklee College of Music
since 2006.
and Ben Monder
, and solo piano album Great Tunes by My Friends with music by Kurt Rosenwinkel
, Monder, Reid Anderson
and others, have been widely acclaimed. Pohjola also plays Argentine chacarera
and jazz
compositions with bassist and composer Fernando Huergo
. They recorded Provinciano for Sunnyside Records
in 2008, on which Pohjola is also credited as the mixing and mastering engineer. Other albums with Pohjola credited as the mixing and mastering engineer include It's About Time by Terry Clarke, Jim Hall
, Joe Lovano
and Greg Osby
and Duende by Alvaro Is Rojas. Pohjola's classical composition catalog includes a series of commissions, mostly by Scandinavian foundations and organizations.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
-born jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, who resides in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is one of the most prolific Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n jazz musicians in his generation.
Childhood in Helsinki, Finland 1971-87
Mika Pohjola was born in HelsinkiHelsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, and grew up in the neighboring city of Vantaa
Vantaa
Vantaa is a city and municipality in Finland. Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen make up the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.Vantaa, with its population of , is the fourth most populated city of Finland. The biggest airport in Finland, the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, is located there...
. He received his formal education in a Steiner school, where his first instrument was violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. He then studied drums, and in 1979 piano and basic music theory with his father, Heikki Pohjola, who is a notable Finnish jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...
. In 1981, young Pohjola entered the Helsinki cathedral boy choir, Cantores Minores
Cantores minores
Cantores Minores is a Helsinki Cathedral's Choir, and Finland's oldest and most successful boys' choir. President of Finland is choir's patron.The choir currently consists of about three hundred 4- to 25-year-old boys and young men...
under the direction of the German immigrant, Heinz Hofmann. The following year, Pohjola entered the Vantaa Conservatory in classical piano, music theory, counterpoint and composition. He also started playing jazz, and improvise freely. His early classical influences were Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
and Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, and some Finnish prominent composers, such as Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto was a Finnish composer.He was the son of Liisa Häyrynen and the famous romantic composer, professor Oskar Merikanto. His childhood he spent in Vilppula, Finland. From year 1919, he was married to Meri Grönmark...
. Pohjola was introduced to the music of Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
by his father, who played his large record collection at home. Pohjola performed music by Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and Debussy at regional recitals and received a shared second prize in the classical piano competition of Vantaa in 1987, and represented his city and the conservatory at the Ilmari Hannikainen
Ilmari Hannikainen
Toivo Ilmari Hannikainen was a Finnish composer.Hannikainen was the son of Pekka Juhani Hannikainen and the brother of Väinö Hannikainen, both of whom were composers and of Tauno Hannikainen who was a conductor...
Piano Competition.
Studies in Stockholm, Sweden 1987-92
In the Fall 1987, Pohjola moved to StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
to study jazz and classical music at the Södra Latin Music Gymnasium. It was in Stockholm where he met his mentor and long-time friend, jazz pianist Alvaro Is Rojas, who taught him piano improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, jazz harmony
Jazz harmony
Jazz harmony is the theory and practice of how chords are used in jazz music. Jazz bears certain similarities to other practices in the tradition of Western harmony, such as many chord progressions, and the incorporation of the major and minor scales as a basis for chordal construction, but...
and ear-training for five years, spanning his high school years and academic studies at the Royal Swedish College of Music. Pohjola received a Master's Degree in Jazz Improvisation and Education at age 20 in the Spring of 1992. His senior recital included his first recorded adult compositions, after which he was invited to join STIM
STIM
STIM, Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå, is the collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers of Sweden. Its role is to act as an agent for its members in order to collect license fees whenever their musical works are performed in public, broadcast or transmitted,...
, the collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers of Sweden. He also made his first radio appearance for the Swedish Radio in 1991.
Berklee and Boston 1992-95
After graduating from Stockholm, Pohjola moved to BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
to study under a scholarship at Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. His continued studies were also supported by his Swedish college, where he had performed his studies with a Summa cum laude. His Berklee professors included Herb Pomeroy
Herb Pomeroy
Irving Herbert "Herb" Pomeroy, III was an influential swing and bebop jazz trumpeter and educator...
, Gary Burton
Gary Burton
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...
, Phil Wilson, Ed Bedner, and Hal Crook
Hal Crook
Hal Crook is a jazz trombonist. He has a degree from the Berklee College of Music and is considered to be a leading teacher and author in the field of jazz improvisation.- Discography :* Hello Heaven * Only Human...
. It was at Berklee where Pohjola met several of his performing and recording collaborators of the 1990s and 2000s, among them Jill Walsh, Johanna Grüssner, Fernando Huergo
Fernando Huergo
Fernando Huergo was an Argentine Olympic fencer. He competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.-References:...
, Matt Penman, Bruno Råberg
Bruno Råberg
Bruno Råberg born July 13, 1954, is a Swedish-born jazz bassist, composer and music professor based in Boston.-Career:BRUNO RÅBERG is an internationally renowned bass player and composer...
, Roberto Dani and Mick Goodrick
Mick Goodrick
Mick Goodrick is an American post bop jazz guitarist and educator most noteworthy for his work with vibraphonist Gary Burton's band from 1973 to 1976, where for part of that time he was playing alongside guitarist Pat Metheny...
. Pohjola graduated from Berklee with honors and several prizes in 1994. That same year he recorded Myths and Beliefs (GM Recordings), produced by Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
.
Concert career 1995-2002
Pohjola settled in New York City in 1995 and became a part of the thriving downtown jazz scene. He briefly studied with pianist Sal MoscaSal Mosca
Sal Mosca was an American jazz pianist who was a student of Lennie Tristano. Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mosca worked in cool jazz and post-bop. He began working with Lee Konitz in 1949 and also worked with Warne Marsh. He spent much of his career teaching and was relatively inactive since...
, who was a student of the legendary Lennie Tristano
Lennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano was a jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. He performed in the cool jazz, bebop, post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long...
. Pohjola performed in the late 1990s at New York clubs Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
, Birdland
Birdland (jazz club)
Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...
, the Five Spot, Smalls, The Jazz Standard and Visiones. His collaborators included Chris Cheek
Chris Cheek
Chris Cheek is an American jazz saxophonist. He has worked as a sideman on more than sixty albums in his career, and has been bandleader of four critically acclaimed solo albums.-Biography:Cheek was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri...
, Mark Turner
Mark Turner (musician)
Mark Turner is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist with several recordings to his credit.-Biographical information:Born in Fairborn, Ohio, and raised in Southern California, Turner originally intended to become a commercial artist. In elementary school he played the clarinet, followed by the alto...
, Miguel Zenón
Miguel Zenon
Miguel Zenón is an alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader.-Biography:Miguel Zenón was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While studying at the Escuela Libre de Musica in San Juan, he won a scholarship to the “Berklee in Puerto Rico” program of the Berklee College of Music and a scholarship to...
, Ben Monder
Ben Monder
-Biography:Monder attended the University of Miami. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians including Lee Konitz, Toots Thielmans, Paul Motian and Maria Schneider....
, Drew Gress
Drew Gress
Drew Gress is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey, raised in the Philadelphia area, and currently based in New York City.-Biography:...
, Jeff Williams, Jochen Rückert, Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson (musician)
Matt Wilson is a singer/songwriter who is best known as the not overly serious lead of the band Trip Shakespeare. While Matt was an English concentrator at Harvard he met John Munson and Elaine Harris and formed the band Trip Shakespeare. After the breakup he was a drummer for a Minneapolis band...
and Mark Ferber. Pohjola started touring Europe regularly, mostly as a bandleader and composer where he performed with his New York-based ensembles. Pohjola was invited to Ukraine in 1999, 2001 and 2002 as the cultural representative of the Finnish Foreign Ministry. As a counterbalance to his quartet, he formed a freely improvising
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
duo, Sound of Village, with Yusuke Yamamoto
Yusuke Yamamoto
is a Japanese actor. He was born in Aichi, Japan. His debut role was as Tsurugi Kamishiro, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Sasword, in Kamen Rider Kabuto.-Television:-Movies:...
. Their home became the Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
in New York City, but they also did two notable appearances at Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
. In 2000, Sound of Village recorded its self-titled album. Their tours included appearances at several jazz festivals in Scandinavia and Japan.
Arranging and recordings 2002-2006
In the recording sessions of his first four albums as a leader, Pohjola's interest and knowledge in the possibilities of the recording studio grew from a mere documentary medium into a compositional tool. He had recorded two multi-tracked songs for his Landmark album in 2002, featuring multiple voices with fellow Finnish vocalist Johanna Grüssner. The success of Landmark led to further cooperation with Grüssner, and the first recording of the entire catalog of the original MoominMoomin
The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses...
music songbook by Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson was a Swedish-Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She is best known as the author of the Moomin books.- Biography :...
and Erna Tauro
Erna Tauro
Erna Tauro, née Pergament, was a Finnish-Swedish pianist and composer.-Biography:Erna Tauro was born in Viborg, daughter of Isak Pergament and Rifka née Rosenthal, and niece of Moses Pergament and Simon Parmet. The family moved to Berlin in 1921 and later to Helsinki...
. Moomin Voices was released in two versions (2003 in Swedish; 2005 in Finnish). The follow-up album, A Lark in the Snowstorm (2006), featured Pohjola's original-minded arrangements of legendary tangos.
Vocal-Piano duos
Pohjola has ever since living in Sweden (in the late 1980s) been a specialist in collaborating with jazz vocalists. His earliest vocal partners included Rigmor Gustafsson and Lisa WerlinderLisa Werlinder
Lisa Werlinder is a Swedish actress, and jazz musician/singer.-Career:She was born at in Vaksala, Uppsala.She was educated at Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm and at Luleå Acting Academy between 1996-2000...
, and in the Boston-period Johanna Grüssner, with whom he recorded an extended release Swedish Traditional Songs (2006). Pohjola has performed regularly with Nashville-based vocalist Jill Walsh since the late 1990s and released three albums.
Teaching
Since 1993, Pohjola has been a frequent clinician at conservatories, especially in Scandinavia. In the years 1995-2008, he was also the jazz principal and big band leader at the international NilsiäNilsiä
Nilsiä is a small town and a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
Summer Music Camp.
Recognitions
Pohjola is a Steinway Distinguished ArtistSteinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
since 1997, and a major visiting artist at Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
since 2006.
Current career
Pohjola's latest releases, Northern Sunrise with Steve WilsonSteve Wilson (jazz musician)
Steve Wilson is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:As a teenager, he played in various rhythm and blues and funk bands. After a year accompanying singer Stephanie Mills, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he majored in music. In 1987 he moved to New...
and Ben Monder
Ben Monder
-Biography:Monder attended the University of Miami. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians including Lee Konitz, Toots Thielmans, Paul Motian and Maria Schneider....
, and solo piano album Great Tunes by My Friends with music by Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist and keyboardist who came to prominence in the 1990s.-Biography:He attended the Berklee School of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time...
, Monder, Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson is a bassist and composer originally from Minnesota. Anderson is best known for his work in The Bad Plus with pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King...
and others, have been widely acclaimed. Pohjola also plays Argentine chacarera
Chacarera
The Chacarera is a dance of Argentine origin. It is a genre of folk music that, for many Argentines, serves as a rural counterpart to the cosmopolitan imagery of the Tango...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
compositions with bassist and composer Fernando Huergo
Fernando Huergo
Fernando Huergo was an Argentine Olympic fencer. He competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.-References:...
. They recorded Provinciano for Sunnyside Records
Sunnyside Records
Sunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...
in 2008, on which Pohjola is also credited as the mixing and mastering engineer. Other albums with Pohjola credited as the mixing and mastering engineer include It's About Time by Terry Clarke, Jim Hall
Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
and Greg Osby
Greg Osby
Greg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
and Duende by Alvaro Is Rojas. Pohjola's classical composition catalog includes a series of commissions, mostly by Scandinavian foundations and organizations.
As Leader
- The Red Bicycle, 2009
- Great Tunes by My Friends, 2009
- Christmas Carols, 2009
- Northern Sunrise, 2009
- A Lark in the Snowstorm, 2006
- Moomin in Finnish, 2005
- Ball Play, 2003
- Moomin in Swedish, 2003
- Landmark, 2002
- Sound of Village, 2000
- Live At The Blue Note, recorded 1996, released 2000
- English Breakfast, 1999
- Announcement, 1998
- The Secret of the Castle, 1997
- Jazz Capital of the World, 1996
- Myths and Beliefs, 1996
- Reflections in Real Time, 1994
As Sideman
- Zero, 2011 w. Maria Neckam
- Live on Broadway, 2009 w. Jill Walsh
- Provinciano, 2008, w. Fernando Huergo
- Two for the Road, 2008 w. Jill Walsh
- Suomalaisia Lauluja 2007 w. Eeppi Ursin
- Live at the Savoy 2006 w. Grupo Nuevo
- Swedish Traditional Songs, 2006 w. Johanna Grüssner
- Grandes Éxitos del Tango, 2003 w. Tango Republic
- Live at Regattabar 2002 w. Fernando Huergo
- Still Alive, 2001 w. Miguel Zenón
- Taste of Honey 1998 w. Jill Walsh
- Improvisations, 1997 w. George Garzone
- Johanna Grüssner Band, 1995 w. Johanna Grüssner
- Orange, 1994 w. Sophie Dunér
See also
External links
- Official Website
- Mika Pohjola at All About Jazz
- [ Mika Pohjola at Allmusic]