Quantity:
BUY CD $12.95
BUY MP3 $4.99

For the Beauty of the Earth

NA1030

Kazzrie Jaxen (Liz Gorrill), solo piano & voice


INVOCATION
1. How Deep Is the Ocean

PART I - LOVE'S FIRE
2. Secrets Start Singing
3. Shaken Out In Thunder
4. Stella By Starlight
5. The Story of Pure Mirrors
6. Vision to Flame
7. Gardens Dying, Blossoming
8. Spring's Firebirds
9. Magician of Being
10. Our Mystery Will Grow Green

PART II - ALONE WITH THE ONE
11. The Stormy Wind
12. Within the Mysterious Darkness
13. Shine the Warrior's Heart
14. When Time Is Vanishing
15. From Abyss to Abyss
16. Nuances of the Rainbow
17. Blue Is My Inside Sky
18. Two Hands Made of Sun
19. The Eternal Now of Music
 

Recorded May/June 1997 & January 1998

REVIEWS

Liz Gorrill's solo piano outing manages to be abstract, rhythmic, unpredictable, bluesy and purposeful at the same time.  There are moments during this fascinating performance when it sounds as if she has three hands!
—Scott Yanow, Editor, All Music Guide to Jazz

 

Based upon the poetry of Jalal-ud Din Rumi and Colette Aboulker-Muscat, pianist/vocalist Liz Gorrill has scripted an alluring florid companion that evokes the poignancy of prose as she keenly balances silence with italicized statements.  As a pianist, she delivers flickering impressionistic lines that suggest a deep compassion for European classical music and free jazz.  But there's a clarity in her playing that keeps it from tipping over to brainy self-indulgence or emotive nonsense.  Her plaintive vocal works magic in this context as she transforms worn classics like Irving Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean" into a meditative prayer.  For the Beauty of the Earth is not the easiest of listenings, but it rewards with every return.
—John Murph, Jazz Times

 

Solo piano and voice have long been Gorrill's channels to and from a rich inner life.  The spiritual search continues in this recently recorded music, most of it her own conception.  A meditative, completely altered "How Deep is the Ocean" opens the door on Gorrill's own pieces, presented in two groupings inspired by poems of Jalal-ud Din Rumi and Colette Aboulker-Muscat.  Gorrill's improvisations on phrases and imagery from these poems is a continuation of their process of discovery . . . this is a highly personal and original musical experience.
—Lois Moody, Jazz News

 

After a stark, brooding deconstruction of Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean," Liz Gorrill goes on to create a startling solo piano record.  Certainly there's a classical touch and strong feel of formal rigor about her playing that ranges from the Satie-like repetitions of "Secrets Start Singing" to the fugue-like romp of "Two Hands Made of Sun," a startling performance that made me smile as it conjured up a further point of reference: Lennie Tristano.  From impressionist miniatures like "Shaken Out in Thunder" and "The Stormy Wind" to sustained meditations like "Gardens Dying, Blossoming," Gorrill explores an adventurous program that is simply exquisite."—David Lewis, Cadence

 

For the Beauty of Her Music Award:  To Liz Gorrill for her CD For the Beauty of the Earth.  Her music not only was inspired by the currents of the river and the feeling of the wind through the trees, but also sounds like those forces of nature.  It rumbles like thunder.  It glistens like a rainbow.  It flutters like a breeze.  And when Gorrill sings "How Deep is the Ocean" in her rich voice, she makes you truly appreciate the wonder of it all.
—Stephen Israel, Times Herald Record