Liz Story is a wonderful piano player, but that is not what makes her great. What makes her great is her musical compositions. In my opinion, she has made some of the most exquisite recordings around, of her own compositions. (She's on the Windham Hill label.)
What distinguishes her music? After all, there are a number of quite good piano players/composers these days. What lifts her music to another level, in my opinion, is a quality that pierces the heart in a profound way.
In such pieces as "Devotion," "Beginners Mind," "The Truth from Above," "Easy Access," "Wedding Rain," "Welcome Home" and many others, Liz Story shows us, like the great composers from the past and indeed like any great artist, how tremendous technical sophistication can be submerged into something much greater than mere wizardry.
Though she certainly possesses such sophistication and wizardry, what she really brings to the table is a delicacy, a grace, almost a fragility, that, in her best examples, manages to reach a sublime, heart-rending and heart-lifting quality that few others can do, or at least do so well.
On top of that, her best compositions have a striking originality of technique and artistry, on display in such albums as Solid Colors, 17 Seconds from Anywhere and Welcome Home.
Anyway, when I thought of people I tremendously admire, Liz Story was the first to come to mind. I invite you to check out this astonishing pianist and composer for yourself.
—jim sloman, 9.2.10
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