Lynne Arriale - Being Human
Challenge Records, 2024
Pianist and bandleader Lynne Arriale has most recently directed her attention to social commentary through composition. Her 2022 Challenge recording, The Lights Are Always On represented her reaction and assimilation of the COVID pandemic, while Chimes of Freedom (Challenge, 2020) gazed squarely into the face of American political complacency and paralysis. On Being Human, Arriale, in company with bassist Alon Near and drummer Lukasz Zyta, celebrates the goodness of the human spirit through the images of its youth, activist Greta Thunburg, physicist Jacob Barnett, and poet Amanda Gorman, among others.
Arriale has evolved into a master trio leader with a keen aptitude for arrangements that drive the dramatic dynamics of a song. The opening piece “Passion,” dedicated to activist Thunberg, is a lesson in individual instrument volume control. Her piano is orchestral: block chords giving way to the lyric. Near’s bass is maintained near the volume of the piano, offering the pianist both a roadmap and company for the journey through the composition. Zyta’s shimmering cymbal work is kept in check always at or below the piano further providing a a completely occupied sonic space.
“Faith,” dedicated to those of Faith is a quietly confident, gospel-inflected piece musically emulating opening one’s eyes and feeling peace. Arriale allows a rural Spiritual piano to seep into an otherwise modern, mainstream song, anointing her performance with gritty street credibility. Arriale’s masterpiece on the recording is “Curiosity,” dedicated to the autistic mathematician Jacob Barnett. Arriale translates into music her idea of what goes on in the head of a neurodivergent genius. Thoughts and music are all there, just not in a neuronormative order.
Being Human is a collection of thoughtful and thematic compositions by an artist who has grown into an expert doing it. Arriale is heading for something special. She is nowhere near finished.