Lynne Arriale – Being Human
(Problem Data CR 73572. Album evaluate by Bruce Lindsay)

Lately, pianist and composer Lynne Arriale has produced music that displays what she sees because the social turmoil and division now current on the planet. Chimes of Freedom, from 2020, focussed on migration and refugees; 2022’s The Lights are At all times On emerged from the Covid pandemic. Being Human, recorded in July 2023,is Arriale’s seventeenth album as chief and continues this method. It’s credited to the Lynne Arriale Trio, which is accomplished by bassist Alon Close to and drummer Lukasz Zyta and, because the title suggests, the music focuses on what the album notes name “qualities all of us share that outline our humanity.” It’s a spotlight made even clearer by the titles of the ten compositions: “Ardour,” “Braveness,” “Religion” and so forth, and by Arriale’s resolution to dedicate every tune both to a particular particular person or to people collectively. Therefore “Persistence” is devoted to Malala Yousafzai, “Ardour” to Greta Thunberg, “Braveness” to the individuals of Ukraine.

Such a various vary of dedicatees is mirrored within the equally various music. There are sluggish tempo tunes corresponding to “Gratitude,” with Alon Close to’s bass solo at its coronary heart, or “Religion,” with its mild mixture of gospel and folks musics, and there are extra uptempo numbers such because the flowing and melodic “Coronary heart” and the propulsive, energetic, “Persistence.” “Love,” devoted to “humankind,” seems in two types. First time round it’s a trio efficiency of nice subtlety and lyricism. Second time, Arriale performs solo, utilizing a Yamaha Clavinova to create a choral impact that comes throughout as synthetic and considerably unsettling. It appears odd to make use of synthetic human sound on a observe devoted to humankind, an anomaly on a recording that’s in any other case characterised by real, empathetic, human interplay.

Three tunes stand out for his or her instantly partaking positivity. “Curiosity” is devoted to Jacob Barnett, a younger mathematician and physicist. It’s a skittish, jagged, little tune, stuffed with playful exploration as all three musicians improvise after the transient opening melody, a tune that for me conjures visions of kittens or puppies in energetic play relatively than the earnest research of a scientist however could be a mirrored image of Barnett’s personal persona. “Soul” is a delicate however uplifting quantity, its seemingly easy swing combining with a powerful melody. “Pleasure” is simply that, 4 minutes of calypso-based jollity that hits from Zyta’s first flourish on percussion and carries on to the ultimate bar.

LINK: Being Human at Correct

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