Lynne Arriale Trio: The Lights Are Always On
Challenge Records

Steve Boudreau: Cherished Possessions
Steve Boudreau

Steven Feifke: The Role of the Rhythm Section
La Reserve Records

The abundance of piano trio albums released each year testifies to the form's enduring power and seeming inexhaustibility. These recent recordings present three personalized and inspired takes on the genre, with all respectfully carrying on the long-standing tradition associated with Evans, Mehldau, Jarrett, and others.

The Lights Are Always On, Lynne Arriale's sixteenth album as leader, is a particularly fine example of the form. With double bassist (and co-producer) Jasper Somsen and drummer E. J. Strickland accompanying her, the recording achieves a near-perfect symbiosis of emotion and technique, one where the latter's always deployed in service to the former. Music of genuine and authentic character results, and though it comprises ten distinct pieces, the album plays like a suite, an impression attributable in part to the project's overall theme. The Lights Are Always On is dedicated to her husband, who passed away in August 2021, and Congressman John Lewis, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and those who defended elected representatives during the January 6, 2021 Insurrection are also honoured. The title itself was inspired by the words and selflessness of Dr. Prakash Gatta, a surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, and the heroism of front-line health care workers battling COVID-19.

Consistent with the album title, gratitude is conveyed throughout in its uplifting tone and the trio's performances. Arriale's commanding melodic expression is buoyed by the responsiveness of her collaborators, resulting in ten visceral statements that achieve an exceptionally high standard. Much of the material exudes an appealing warmth and soulfulness, the opening track alone, “March On,” indicating as much. In this quietly majestic setting and in the ones that follow, Arriale displays an unerring talent for translating emotion into sound, her playing always tasteful and refined yet never stiff. She's comfortable in multiple milieus too, as evidenced by the ease with which she navigates the gospel-influenced rapture of “Sisters” and heartfelt balladry of “Sounds Like America” and the beautiful closer “Heroes.”

Cheekily titled, “The Notorious RBG” honours Ginsburg with a swaggering statement of quiet yet nonetheless sweeping grandeur. “Honor” and “Walk in My Shoes” pays dignified tribute to Vindman, whose military career was ruined after he delivered testimony during the 2019 impeachment hearings that exposed Trump misdeeds, and civil rights icon John Lewis, respectively. The sensitivity of Somsen and Strickland to the pianist's vision is shown by the sparkling textures they contribute to the lyrical title track, a stirring and graceful exercise. The pandemic years have been challenging indeed, yet resignation and surrender are rejected here in favour of resilience and determination. Another appealing thing about the recording has to do with concision: only one piece pushes past five minutes, and two are in the three-minute range. There's no flab, in other words, when Arriale and company state their case and then move on, and fittingly, Challenge Records' physical presentation of the release is as classy as its state-of-the-art musical content.

In contrast to Arriale's all-originals collection, Steven Feifke's augments one piece by the pianist with classics by Monk, Hancock, Golson, Powell, and others. Interestingly, Feifke's uplifting evocation “Sunrise in Harlem” is one of two tracks on the release (“Tea For Two” the other) featuring the pianist alone, with his longtime partners, drummer Bryan Carter and bassist Dan Chmielinski, joining him on the rest. In paying tribute to revered jazz figures who called New York home, “Sunrise in Harlem” almost became the album title, but Feifke ultimately went with The Role of the Rhythm Section to accentuate its critical function within a band context and the importance of his connection with Carter and Chmielinski, both of who've played with him on a number of big band releases. Here we witness the telepathic chemistry between the three in its most immediate and unencumbered form.

Golson's “Stablemates” and Powell's “Celia” shine in the trio's hands when the tunes make Latin nods before advancing into straight swing, the three riding the music's rising waves with obvious delight. As these, Hancock's “Dolphin Dance,” and others make clear, Feifke exploits the tunes' melodic potential to their fullest, typically giving full voice to their defining character before moving into explorations that while probing never lose the essence of the composition. Generally the tone of the performances inclines towards lyricism, with Feifke's playing grounded in the tradition established by his forebears but not limited by it. While Carter and Chmielinski both take solo turns, it's the pianist's block chords and soaring lines that drive the performances most.

The Van Heusen-Burke standard “Here's That Rainy Day” sounds fresh in the samba-tinged treatment the trio gives it, and Feifke's familiarity with jazz tradition comes to the fore in his inspired solo take on Vincent Youmans' “Tea For Two” when hints of stride seep into his otherwise swinging interpretation. Speaking of swing, Monk's “I Mean You” becomes a rollicking thrill-ride in the trio's hands. Appreciation for jazz's legacy and the NYC setting comes through vividly in the eight performances. Though the album was captured in the studio, it exudes the energy and go-for-broke spontaneity of a live gig. The rapport between the players is evident regardless of the musical style and mood in play, something Feifke succinctly articulates in stating, “On the one hand, you never know what's going to happen next. But when it does, it always feels like it was supposed to.” Like Arriale's, Feifke's thirty-eight-minute release is compact but no less satisfying for being so. These eight performances make one eager to hear more of the trio's playing, be it the three only or as part of a larger ensemble.

North of the border, Ottawa-based Steve Boudreau follows an ambitious five-volume solo piano set he recorded at home in 2020 with the self-released Cherished Possessions, his first trio album featuring primarily original music. Certainly the two covers included with the eight Boudreau compositions—Wayne Shorter's “Go” and Bjork's “Isobel”—are inspired and enticing choices. Laid down at Boutique de Son in Montreal on October 24, 2021, Boudreau, acoustic bassist Adrian Vedady, and drummer Jim Doxas recorded all of the material in one afternoon, the high calibre of the performances testifying to the equally high level of musicianship the three brought to the session.

The pianist's accomplishments extend beyond two albums. He earlier issued a quartet set, Opus 2, with guitarist Garry Elliott plus Preludes, a trio album featuring arrangements of Gershwin material. Boudreau's toured throughout Canada, Europe, and the US, has appeared at various theatre venues and jazz festivals, and earned his Master of Music degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston in 2010. Giving back, he's also taught privately for more than two decades. His playing on Cherished Possessions is consistently tasteful and refined; it also suggests he's wholly absorbed the piano tradition whilst also forging his own personal style. Boudreau embroiders his playing with imagination and intelligence, be it an uptempo romp or delicate ballad statement, and his technical command is such that any idea, no matter how spontaneous its origin, arrives fully and eloquently formed. Adding to its appeal, he favours a mellifluous and lyrical attack as opposed to one marked by dissonance.

Sensitive to the music's unfolding, Vedady and Doxas show themselves to be excellent partners to the pianist and considerably more than mere support; at the same time, they're also careful to not overpower the leader. The driving, Latin-tinged pulse the two fashion for “Rolling Oil” provides a powerful backdrop for the pianist, and during the radiant ballad “Words of Hope,” the bassist and Boudreau engage in an ongoing conversation of sorts yet stay sensitively attuned to the melodic armature of the composition.

Elsewhere, the leader entwines elegant figures through the breezy “Descending Blues”; quirkier by comparison is “For Staff Only,” which wends an angular, rather Rota-esque path as it oscillates between march-inflected rhythms and semi-drunken lopes. Given the jubilant groove driving “Charlie's Family Reunion,” the said event could conceivably have happened at some tropical South American resort. On the covers front, Shorter's distinctive compositional identity comes through vividly in the trio's absorbing treatment of “Go,” and much the same could be said about Bjork's “Isobel” when the tune assumes the character of a drowsy dirge. Again, the simple fact that the album was recorded in a single afternoon attests to the advanced level of musicianship in play.

May 2022