| Gaia | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Marilyn Crispell |
| Cover: | Gaia_Crispell_cover.jpg |
| Released: | 1988 |
| Recorded: | March 15, 1987 |
| Studio: | Woodstock studio, Woodstock, New York |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 39:40 |
| Label: | Leo |
| Producer: | Leo Feigin |
| Chronology: | Marilyn Crispell |
| Prev Title: | Quartet Improvisations, Paris 1986 |
| Prev Year: | 1987 |
| Next Title: | Labyrinths |
| Next Year: | 1988 |
Gaia is an album by American jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell, which was recorded in 1987 and released on the English Leo label.[1]
The Wires 1988 critics poll listed Gaia as one of the best albums of that year. The editors wrote: "Named for the Greek Goddess of the Earth, GAIA affirms the power of the life-force in fierce, joyous music that is both sexual and spiritual..."[2]
In his review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek states "Gaia is too fragmented to be marketed as a single work, its editing is sloppy and incoherent, and the improvising here - by a trio that would later stun live audiences with its empathy and near telepathic communication - is too stilted and rudimentary."
The Penguin Guide to Jazz says that "Gaia is one of the finest composition/improvisation records of the '80s, a hymn to the planet that is neither mawkish nor sentimental, but tough-minded, coherent and entire."[3]
All compositions by Marilyn Crispell