Pure Piano Portraits

Pure Piano Portraits

Pure Piano Portraits
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CD Details

Performer: Jeff Bjorck
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1997-12-01
Music Label: Pure Piano Music
Soundtracks:
  1. Be Thou My Vision
  2. Butterfly Sunrise
  3. Mountain Echoes
  4. Walk Down Steward Lane
  5. Can't Say How I Feel
  6. Catskill Mountain Meadow
  7. Living Waters
  8. Twilight
  9. River Sunset
  10. Waiting For Farewell
  11. Starlight Ragtime Waltz
  12. Jerusalem

Music reviews of Pure Piano Portraits

Music Review: An Emotional, Evocative, Exquisite Instrumental Piano CD
Rating: 5 Stars

Jeff Bjorck's Pure Piano Portraits is one of those rare instrumental creations that captures more emotion and conveys more vivid imagery than any number of lyrically based popular albums on the market today. Bjorck accomplishes this through a generous diversity of selections that offer a peek at his many influences---classical, new age, pop, ragtime, early Carole King, big-band, gospel, and inspirational stylings. The 12-song CD plays like a concert, as one song flows into the next---although the varying keys Bjorck employs on his selections provide enough differentiation to tip off listeners that he's no self-indulgent maestro, pounding out an hourlong progressive monster. The main reason Pure Piano Portraits triumphs where other run-of-the-mill instrumental attempts fail is Bjorck's keen sense of tempo and melody. Many players---fearing they won't be able to say enough with just their instruments---often fill every second with a cacophony of sound. But Bjorck often says as much, if not more, in the quiet passages between his music. The opening of the second track, "Butterfly Sunrise," is an excellent example: By striking just a few, soft notes during the nearly minute-long intro---and letting their echoes ring out for healthy stretches---Bjorck poignantly captures a floating, drifting feeling...not unlike a Monarch's flight at sunrise, just as it's wiggling its wings awake. (The song's striking imagery is such that Bjorck could very well have composed the song while watching the scene its title describes.) The tune picks up in tempo---as a butterfly might---but then Bjorck deftly reemploys his colorful, understated introduction as the song's quiet finale. Exquisite. There're no shortage of melody, either. "Living Waters"---among the most moving, bright songs on Pure Piano Portraits---lingers in your head long after the last bar is played. Its melodic excursion evokes images such as skipping down a mountain path, swapping stories at a family reunion just as sunlight's fading, and the first, exuberant heartbeats of new love. Bjorck flies all over the ivories on this one, returning again and again to various forms of his anchoring chorus. A satisfying, memorable tune. Two other standout tracks, "Walk Down Steward Lane" and "Starlight Ragtime Waltz," possess the kind of drenched-in-the-past feel you'd sense while watching the very best historically based films and theatrical presentations. These melodies manage plenty of image-conjuring as well---almost tearfully sentimental: Faded, wrinkled, black-and-white photographs of a boy fishing with his pop (and their newfangled transistor radio in tow), a crowd streaming onto a damp city sidewalk in April after witnessing Ty Cobb square off with Honus Wagner on Opening Day 1916, or a turn-of-the-20th-century family posing proudly on the front lawn...and a Model-T Ford in the background. The CD is bookended by Bjorck's arrangements of two traditional Christian hymns, "Be Thou My Vision" and "Jerusalem." Interestingly, his fine treatments only faintly hint at the original versions---you have to really try hard to recognize them. Interpreting already-created compositions does span a wide palette, but Bjorck could have easily retitled these hymns without most of us recognizing they're adaptations. Several song titles themselves reflect Bjorck's obvious love of nature: "Mountain Echoes," "River Sunset," "Twilight," "Catskill Mountain Meadow." And with the cover art---a sharp, crisp color photo Bjorck himself took at the majestic Glacier National Park in northern Montana---the total package expresses a sense of transcendence, otherness, and beauty. Bjorck has created something very special with Pure Piano Portraits---a musical statement that can touch a wide variety of people on a wide variety of emotional and reflective levels. Listening to it is much like embarking on a journey---albeit one that begins and ends in your heart and soul. Grab Pure Piano Portraits for yourself, and you'll soon be on your way...
More Pure Piano Portraits free music reviews:
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Description of Pure Piano Portraits

Jeff Bjorck's debut CD of original solo piano offers the listener quiet music to calm the heart in a noisy world. These twelve compositions interweave delicacy with intensity, combine musical notes with the space between them, and create moving pictures that move the emotions. Bjorck's unique style has been described as a cross between New Age and Debussy, and he believes that music in its simplest form is sometimes the closest thing to art. Not surprisingly, PURE PIANO PORTRAITS paints a gallery of fine art images suitable for framing. For those seeking an escape from stress, moments of quiet reflection, or simply an atmosphere of elegance, this CD is the ideal choice.

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