JOIN ASR THROUGH OUR GO FUND ME CAMPAIGN!
WORDS ABOUT LIZ
Ea Birkett SAYS
(performer, composer, producer, many more hats ... traveling the world)
Liz, IS one of the hardest working people I know. She has the innate ability to overcome difficulties that would crush mere mortals. She also has the unusual ability of being able to function with equal ease, in both the linear and post-linear milieu, inside or outside the box of conventional structure and wisdom. A Master social networker, whom I've watched build project after project with her uncanny abilities to get disparate people to work together. She can take the speck of an idea, get inside and behind it, turn it into a concrete foundation. Then build the edifice with tall glass doors and a large parking lot, and a steady stream of investors, artist, and clients, headed continuously her way all vying to be included. Her nature encompasses, both a very sharp business acumen tempered with a very strong vein of philanthropy. Liz is the essence of a self-starter, which is perhaps a great oddity in an exceptional artist. She is also the person who will help you pick up the "chips" when they've fallen down, and help you to see how to start anew.
Liz Gilbert is a sleeper cell and one of the best kept secrets in music,but not to fellow musicians.
She was born in Lake of the Woods Ontario, grew up in New York City in a musical and literary family. She was a social activist from her teens on ,spent many years in Europe ,and over the years met and performed with many legendary musicians.
She plays numerous instruments, has pipes to knock your socks off,is a producer and experimental instrument builder.
She is a prolific songwriter and Eric Burdon of Animals fame chose her songs to record on an album of favorite writers (which included Leonard Cohen and David Byrne)., My Secret Life. Broken Records was a song Liz wrote and gave to Eric for his 60th birthday. Here is the raw track as she wrote it https://soundcloud.com/liz-gilbert/brokenrecords
and here's Eric's version : https://youtu.be/SGgcjLL95So?list=RDSGgcjLL95So
Gilbert has released 6 albums including the New Third World trilogy as limited artist editions that are much coveted. She has devoted countless years to supporting other artists through founding organizations like ACE in Vancouver, BC which legalized live-work studios ,empowering thousands of artists.
Currently, Gilbert is working on a new album, also building an arts non profit in the desert SouthWest called Chordata (which has several major projects on the go and is a unique venue as well). /T.A.(not a commodity dot ws) (2008)
Those who have had the great good fortune to work with Liz Gilbert in music and poetry ( which is not separate from her over the top social activism,organization,entrepreneurial ), know she is the epitome of unique. What most do not know is that she is an explosion of live,improvisational magic ,as to experience this live is a rare public event.
GHOST DANCE was one such occasion,where Liz built up the tracks you are hearing live while playing a Martin backpacker electric and bass,slung over her shoulders,gunslinger style. As the layers of sound built , the vocal performance words and all,begin to surface seemingly out of mid air. This is not typical live looping. I guess you could just call it a one woman experimental jazz ensemble.
But wait. Over the last two years or so,after Liz closed the doors on the studio arts space in California, she has been experimenting with tiny recording devices,lo fi and so,is this itinerant folk music?
Impossible to categorize.
Those of us working with Liz on various projects of our own,should have documented her more,in order to share the amazing process. But,we didn't,because her focus was on us,getting the finest sound and space for us,championing us,creating the ground of encouragement and support for us.
It may not be perfectly pristine,but it is living ,breathing composition at all times ,whether it is a recorded engagement on a street corner ( with Liz handing out old vinyl records and packets of vegetable seeds), or in a club.
We all hope that health issues notwithstanding, more will see Liz live,doing HER thing,,which will always include all of us anyway,because that's how she rolls.
Bill Simone ( Tucson Bill),NYC.
Federico Antin
Creative Director at AllSenses Art&Ads
Liz Gilbert 's dedication to creative work and innovation it's beyond words, love for the art, but essentially for the artist.
I can't think in many people with the same Liz's skill to build new spaces for art, I would say about her: "thoughts in the sky, feet on the ground".
La dedicación de Liz Gilbert al trabajo creativo e innovación está más allá de las palabras, amor por el arte, pero esencialmente por el artista.
No puedo pensar en muchas personas con la misma habilidad de Liz para construir nuevos espacios para el arte, diría sobre ella: "pensamientos en el cielo, pies en la tierra
Dennis Callaci drawing,Impose Magazine/February 2015
Lola (or Eliza Gilbert), the great Irish courtesan, dancer, actress:
"It is true there is hardly a great or heroic woman of history whose name has not escaped the contagion of scandal. Really strong-minded women are women of deeds not of words. Therefore I dedicate my work to men and women of every land who trust so much in their own souls that they dare stand up in the might of their own individuality to meet the tidal currents of the world." -Eliza Gilbert
Lola (or Eliza Gilbert), the great Irish courtesan, dancer, actress:
"It is true there is hardly a great or heroic woman of history whose name has not escaped the contagion of scandal. Really strong-minded women are women of deeds not of words. Therefore I dedicate my work to men and women of every land who trust so much in their own souls that they dare stand up in the might of their own individuality to meet the tidal currents of the world." -Eliza Gilbert