A pianistic touch that conveys intensity, even when dancing lightly over the keyboard

Pianist David Arner suddenly appears to be everywhere.  He’s released four different recordings in the past year: two solo piano discs and two trio recordings done with Bisio and drummer Jay Rosen.   Out/In The Open is the second recording from this aggregation.   Arner has been active since the ‘70s but mostly under the radar, including stints with Meredith Monk and Charlotte Moorman.

He has a pianistic touch that conveys intensity, even when he’s dancing lightly over the keyboard, and seems comfortable dealing with both compositional frameworks and spontaneous interplay.

On Out/In The Open, the balance leans toward the latter with four out of the six tracks being free improvisations.   One can’t get a much better rhythm section for this type of music than Bisio and Rosen.   The former can always be counted upon to shore up the lower end of an ensemble with thick, dense lines that flesh out but never overpower the music.   Rosen is equally deft in his approach.   He’s a colorist and melodist par excellence, yet he’s also capable of laying down an all-over percussive underpinning, pointing to myriad directions for the improvisers as well.   Together this trio offers tracks (in addition to the improvisations there is an Arner original and a take on Rodgers-Hart’s “My Romance”) that indicate, exploratory piano trio music is still out there moving forward rather than wallowing in the well-worn path of history.

Robert Iannapollo, July, 2010