Motema

2006-11-29
Pittsburgh Post Gazette By Bob Protzman - Review

So many superlatives have been heaped upon pianist Lynne Arriale that it is difficult to describe her and her trio's brilliance without repeating some of them.

Lynee Arriale Trio
Simply and directly, Ms. Arriale (ARE-e-all) and her trio (Jay Anderson, bass; Steve Davis, drums) are the equal of any piano trio recording today, and superior to many.

This likely is news to many, since Arriale never has recorded with a major label since beginning her career as a leader after she won the 1993 International Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Yet this is her 10th album.

There is the choice of material. On "Live'' (recorded in Germany), we have songs all worth hearing, a heady mix of originals by the leader, and pieces by a diverse list from Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk to South African Abdullah Ibrahim to the Beatles.

Many of the arrangements are stunningly and entertainingly original.

Arriale is a sensitive ballad player, as well as composer and interpreter of romantic, deeply emotional music; she's also a dynamo, a hard-swinging bopper who plays swift, beautifully articulated lines. On dramatic, non- straight-ahead pieces, she is forceful, with a robust, two-handed attack.

"Arise," her 9/11 remembrance, is sad yet uplifting -- like a well-written hymn. Her song "Home'' evokes every imaginable good feeling associated with where we live. Ibrahim's "Mountain of the Night'' is a simple melody evoking an inner peace mixed with joy.

Arriale, however, also loves to rumble around in the low register, as she does on the vamp in "Iko Iko,'' a catchy, African-derived children's song. She and the trio do a hard-driving samba-esque "Braziliana,'' and a staccato-filled, bluesy version of Lennon/McCartney's "Come Together.''

The trio's treatment of Miles' "Seven Steps to Heaven'' and Monk's "Bemsha Swing'' is as fresh as it gets, highly inventive and unconventional, even for those two iconoclasts.

Finally, this is a true trio. Anderson and Davis are as creatively involved -- in the ensemble and as soloists -- as is possible without being the leader.

-- Bob Protzman

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