Customer Reviews

Pure Piano Panoramas

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In my review of Mr. Bjorck's "Pure Piano Portraits," I commented that I missed those "magic moments" one finds in the shorter pieces of composers like MacDowell and Ravel. With the current album, <Pure Piano Panoramas>, I can withdraw that modification to a great extent. I have already played this through about five times and was happy to find NO traces of (say) Groffe in "Desert Cloudburst" or of Ives in "Porch Swing Summer Night." Which is to say that this composer has found his own voice and it is a good one.

His arrangements of the religious hymns with which he chooses to sandwhich his own melodies are quite good; and I suppose the idea is to show nature, as it were, in a divine context. The program notes include the lyrics to "Sculptor of the Sky" but they are not sung on the CD.

I only wonder why Amazon.com chooses to put this in the Popular section when it obviously belongs with the Classical.

The listener can usually tell when music is contrived and without soul. Not so with Jeff Bjorck's two CDs, "Pure Piano Portraits" and "Panoramas." When listening to these compositions I have been transported to the places that inspired many of these pieces. Jeff's piano playing is art that inspires and touches the soul.

Bob Marlowe

"It is my hope that Pure Piano Panoramas" will bring my listeners more of what they enjoy, emotional music with a classical feel that lifts them from the rat race and gently sets them down in a restful place, as far away from everyday chaos as possible." - Jeff Bjorck

Jeff Bjorck plays with a depth of soul not often found in solo piano compositions. There is something deeply moving and spiritual about his music. It is at times like he is having the most intimate musical conversation with the Creator. He will often just sit and play spontaneously from the heart. In fact, he has been creating his own music since he was ten years old.

"Sometimes I feel like a third party, listening to the whole process as an interested observer!" - Jeff Bjorck

In his debut album: "Pure Piano Portraits" Jeff Bjorck was inspired by his love for the Appalachian woods and Catskill Mountains of his youth. Now he is inspired by the Mojave Desert and thunderclouds moving over the scorched earth.

Jeff has many interests, including hang gliding high above the mountains of Southern California. Here he finds creative inspiration for his music. He also loves photography, illustration, painting and poetry. As a clinical psychologist, researcher and professor at a theological seminary, he brings a depth of wisdom, emotion and understanding to this album. He and his wife have written some beautiful words for "Sculptor of the Sky" which are included in the CD booklet and can be read along with the music.

"Human hands make images
in wood, clay and stone.
Statues coldly stand in silence
when the artist's work is done.
But every cloud You breathe is full of life,
color, light, and motion.
They dance across our canopy
as restless as the ocean.
You're the Sculptor of the sky,
every cloud Your work of art,
And the beauty of Your workmanship
wells up inside my heart."

~Jeff and Sharon Bjorck

The first time I listened to this CD I played it in order to fall asleep and found it to be very relaxing and emotionally soothing. I awoke refreshed. When I listen to this CD during the day, it is refreshing and awakens my soul. Jeff recommends listening to the music for the music alone and believes his compositions are "quiet music to calm the heart in a noisy world."

This CD has also apparently been used to help women through natural childbirth, provide an atmosphere of sophistication at intimate wedding receptions and dinner parties, helped children fall asleep at nap time, calmed students in a classroom, assisted patients during chemo and has created a peaceful setting for clients of massage therapists as they work. It is also played on radio stations across America.

Many of the pieces have personal meaning.

"O, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" is an emotional piece which moves from acceptance to forgiveness and love. It expresses what the human heart feels when you are unconditionally loved and accepted.

"Joshua Tree" has an open feel. You are standing out in the open at sunset. A cool breeze moves in and you feel free, happy and relaxed. This piece expresses a calm surrender of the day to the night.

"Soaring Mesa Cliffs" takes you high into the sky, perhaps into the highest emotions that are reflected in exquisite notes of perfection. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun, the wind blowing through your hair. Peaceful and reflective.

"Day Without A Sun" seems to have the feeling of letting go, of accepting and letting your soul fly back to God. This was written when Jeff lost his only uncle to cancer. It seems to be saying: "We will meet again in a superior world, free of pain."

"Desert Cloudburst" holds back at first. The clouds swirl in the sky and then the rain falls slowly at first, droplet by droplet. Then torrents of wet raindrops splatter against the parched earth perhaps even causing a flood of water to wash over the desert. This seems to be about being nourished, about allowing your heart to open and be refreshed by God's love.

"Remembering Gramma" is a delicate piece of pure beauty. This was written for his grandmother who almost lived to see her hundredth birthday. It is my favorite piece on the album. This piece seems to represent a centering force, a stability and a sadness for the loss of someone you loved deeply.

"Porch Swing Summer Night" has a slow feeling of swaying back and forth that is quite magical. You can imagine a warm breeze and conversations about the stars appearing. I can almost hear the stars appearing in the night sky. Unique! This almost sounds like a lullaby at times.

"Your Love Has Made Me Fly" is a tribute to his wife Sharon and seems to take off from the start. It is more intense and filled with a subtle excitement for life. It almost sounds bittersweet in moments and deeply comforting at others. How beautiful.

"The Homestead" seems filled with activity, comfort and connection.

"Holy, Holy, Holy" is a worshipful hymn celebrating the creator, maker of all
that inspires us in nature.

Pure Piano Panoramas is beautiful in its simplicity, stunning in its ability to calm the soul and will refresh your spirit. This is timeless music for a temporary world. There is a little hint of the eternal in Jeff's exquisite compilations.

If you love David Lanz, Jeff Brickman, Danny Wright, Wayne Gratz., Robin Spielberg or George Winston, you will love Jeff Bjorck.

Spiritually Uplifting.

~The Rebecca Review
Author of Seasoned with Love: A collection of
best-loved recipes inspired by over 40 cultures

Jeff Bjorck is one of the most promising new age solo pianists in the field today, and this album is perhaps his strongest. One of the aspects of his music that I find very appealing is his strong use of melody; his pieces are eminently hummable. But this album goes beyond strong melody to add technical and harmonic complexity; there are many interesting chord changes, for example, and rhythmic patterns that make Bjorck's music rewarding not just as background music but also as music that warrants repeated and intensive listening.

There was lots of competition for my favorite piece on the album, but I think the winner is "Your love has made me fly," which is my all-time favorite piece of Bjorck's. "Desert Cloudburst" is my second favorite; I close my eyes while listening to it and can see the rain storm as it hits the desert landscape. "Remembering Grandma" is a simply delightful piece. Possessing perhaps the catchiest melody on the album, it has a quaintly old-fashioned air that is perfect for the theme of the piece.

In short, I recommend this album strongly. Fans of new age artists such as David Nevue, Jon Schmidt, and Stanton Lanier will find "Pure Piano Panoramas" to also occupy a place of honor on their CD racks.

Jeff Bjorck has a bull's eye. This album is indeed "quiet music to calm the heart in a noisy world." In the spirit of David Lanz, George Winston, and Jim Brickman, Jeff has put emotion to music. You can painstakingly analyze each cut, as another reviewer has done (far too tedious for this music fan); or you can just let the music play. This is all refreshingly original music; you won't find it anywhere else. That is part of its allure.

Jeff may be suffocating his profession, though. Before you shell out a hundred bucks an hour for a shrink, turn out the lights, sit back, and put "Pure Piano Panoramas" on the Bose Acoustic Wave Machine. It is just what the doctor ordered... to calm the heart.

Pure Piano Panoramas by pianist/composer Jeff Bjorck is a landscape of emotion. His playing comes from a place of peace born of his deepest convictions, the vast untouchable beauty of nature and memories of people gentle and dear, and I am transported through a gentle web of sound to a quiet place. Comfortable harmonies support gentle twists and turns of melodic fragmented thought. Along the way as I drift from one track into another there are hauntingly beautiful melodies as in the opening track "O, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus." The melody seems to float above the lush, deep sonorous bass. The "Joshua Trees" stand lonely against a desert sky, pointing upward to the "Sculptor of the Sky," another fine track. As Jeff's music reflects, the trees are steadfast, lonely and longing. This track is most beautiful after the key change and my mind drifts off to the clouds. "Sculptor of the Sky" is, in my opinion, one of the most melodic compositions and has some unexpected harmonic treatments, yet welcomingly comfortable, and takes my imagination far beyond the skyline before me to the place where I stand small in the vastness of beautiful simplicity. In "Desert Cloudbursts" the opening melody is lovely beyond words or place. I find myself longing to hear it repeated throughout and waiting for each reintroduction of its statement. I am rewarded and smile. The tracks of "Porch Swing Summer Night," "Homestead," and "Remembering Gramma" are melodies of long ago and seem to float my thoughts to another time, an era lost in the passing of days turned to years. While I listened to these tracks and appreciated them for their simplicity and the warm personal memories and feelings they brought me, I did not feel they represented Jeff's truest stylistic gift. However, on the closing track "Holy, Holy, Holy" Jeff comes forth with the styling, lushness and beauty I have grown to appreciate in his music. Pure Piano Panoramas is a quality recording with beautiful photography by Jeff. I recommend this CD without hesitation and have proudly given it as a gift to my dear friends. This is truly "quiet music to calm the heart in a noisy world." This is music touched by hands of heaven.

Jeff Bjorck's follow-up to his debut, "Pure Piano Portraits", is stunning. The first night I listened to it, I had to keep stopping what I was doing to listen with more focus, and I found myself repeatedly saying "Wow!". The earlier "Portraits" is an excellent album, but the artistic growth and emotional depth in "Panoramas" are amazing! A clinical psychologist, researcher, and professor at a theological seminary in southern California, Jeff's understanding of the human psyche as well as his own deeply spiritual nature come through with a bold confidence and assurance that is lacking in a lot of so-called new age piano recordings. Many artists claim that their compositions are emotional and soothing, but one can sometimes feel an intentional manipulation - the sense that a piece was composed with the idea of being "emotional and soothing", as it were. When the real thing comes through, as it does with "Panoramas", it is a profound and compelling listening experience. These eleven compositions come from such a deeply personal place that you know that Bjorck is opening and sharing his soul with us. As he did on his first album, Bjorck frames his original compositions between his own arrangements of two of his favorite hymns. I was not familiar with the opening hymn, "Oh, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" - what a powerhouse! There is such an emotional charge to this piece that I was amazed that it was not an original. The hymn obviously holds a very profound attachment for Bjorck, and I am very moved each time I hear it. "Holy, Holy, Holy" closes the album, and is also deeply personal, having served as the processional at Bjorck's wedding. Several of the original pieces were inspired by experiences in the southern California desert - "Joshua Trees" describes the majesty of these strange trees with an almost hymn-like reverence; "Soaring Mesa Cliffs" gives a breathtaking feeling of what it is like to fly over the desert as a hang-glider; and "Desert Cloudburst" is a gorgeous depiction of how quickly the weather can change in the desert from quiet and peaceful to a drenching downpour. "Sculptor of the Sky" is Jeff's first musical collaboration with his wife, Sharon; the piece lovingly describes their shared amazement with the beauty of clouds. The remaining pieces are tributes to very special relationships in Bjorck's life. "Day Without Sun" was composed in 1977, after losing his only uncle to cancer - sad and poignant, but very loving. "Remembering Gramma" is a sweet waltz. "Porch Swing Summer Night" is a lazy, peaceful, homey kind of piece. "Your Love Has Made Me Fly" is a joyful and exuberant love song to a beloved wife and best friend. "The Homestead" is cozy, warm and very content. As a piano teacher who listens to solo piano for a living, it takes something very special to knock me out, and this is it! One of my favorite albums for the year 2000, it will continue to be a favorite for years to come. I give "Panoramas" my highest recommendation!

A stunningly beautiful musical collection. "Pure Piano Panoramas" is, in turn, lyrical, soothing, joyous and inspiring. Jeff Bjorck is an accomplished composer with a huge emotional and stylistic range. The whole CD is a joy to experience!

Among my favourite tracks are "Soaring Mesa Cliffs" during which I can imagine flying over the desert and "Desert Cloudburst" which portrays such energy but at the same time, beauty and peace. Clearly, Nature has been an inspiration for Jeff, and his music is an accumulation of his experiences and values. I hope he continues to follow his muse and I look forward to his next recording!

I won't go into a drawn out description of what each song does for me, as music is a personal thing and does different things to different people.

It's very obvious there's alot of feeling in this. The tempo rolls around alot, but with purpose. None of it seems out of place. Very dynamic. Songs build and lull.

I've always loved solo piano, but I tend to be real picky about it. I've noticed alot of such CDs have pitiful recording quality. This is very nicely done. Very clear. This is one of the CDs I use to test speakers, because imo, piano is a great test for clarity. This makes almost feel like I'm playing the piano which is nice.

Now, I'm not really a piano player (I picked up a few songs on a boring trip I was on), but this doesn't strike me as virtuoso stuff... which is good. It's just great melodies and chords played with thoughtfulness and skill. I'm not suggesting that Jeff is not a great piano player (I'd have no basis for making such a judgement anyhow) simply that these songs aren't centered on demonstrating his piano playing prowess but rather on simply being beautiful.

In closing, I like Desert Cloudburst enough that I'm trying desperately to transcribe a guitar version of it despite my difficulties with playing by ear.

Jeff Bjorck plays with a haunting beauty that is at once melancholy and yet joyful. With a richness that reveals a marvelous depth of soul, PURE PIANO PANORAMAS creates the perfect ambiance for reflection, sharing, or creating. Bjorck's remarkable gift for touching the heart makes him one of the most memorable artists today.