Jay Rosen

An Artist of Subtlety and Depth

Posted by David Arner

Porgy/Bess Act 1: The David Arner Trio and Their Rechanneling of Porgy and Bess

David Arner has a pianistic fulminosity (it’s a kind of abundance) that comes across with the substantial release Porgy/Bess Act 1 (CIMP).   He is joined by the first-rank bass virtuoso Michael Bisio and the lightly subtle yet freely engaging drummer Jay Rosen.

In what will be a two-volume release, Mr. Arner takes inspiration from the Gershwin classic Porgy and Bess as well as the Miles Davis-Gil Evans rearrangement from the exceptional 1958 Columbia recording by that name.   David Arner does not get involved with a literal rehashing of the score, nor does he take Gershwin themes as head-solo-head arrangements.   Rather he and the trio react to the music as a springboard for four free improvisations.   You will hear thematic interjections, sometimes in the whole cloth, sometimes as quilted fragments and chordal reminiscences, but all in the context of spontaneous recomposition.

Arner-Bisio-Rosen interact in quite subtle ways and the melodic-kinetic energies of Arner and Bisio are palpable.   This is not as much an energy-surging exercise as a varied expressive dialogue.   In David Arner we hear the techniques of modern improv piano as well as the harmonic-melodic tradition of the Gershwin and Davis-Evans eras but contextualized to his own ends.   And he opens up a space that Michael Bisio and Jay Rosen enter into with open ears and inventive musical discourse.

This is music that takes attentive listening to assimilate.   It is not entertaining; it is enlightening.

I would put this among the best piano trio recordings I’ve heard in this waning year.   Arner is an artist of subtlety and depth.

The trio is a multi-faceted musical force that gains newfound inspiration from classic sources without repeating the obvious.   If only some of the repertoire-oriented aggregations were this creative!

Gapplegate Music Review, December 7,2009

A Sterling Example of Arner Pianism at its Best

Posted by David Arner

The David Arner Trio: Out/In the Open, 2007
Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Remarkable piano trio interplay throughout

Pianist David Arner is a musical voice that does not fit easily into the various schools of improvisation that are widely influential among the free school of players.  He’s managed to forge a path that does not cross directly the Cecil Taylors, the Paul Bleys, the Keith Jarretts, or the Bill Evans influenced players.  Not that he has ignored these stylistic landmarks.  Clearly not.  But he chooses to go his own way.

You can hear that quite readily in the 2007 recording Out/In the Open (Not Two 812-2).  It’s a trio date with the formidable alliance of Arner with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Jay Rosen, all key institutional-foundational figures in the creative improvisational music of the present era.  The album’s hour-long program features four collective improvisations, an Arner composition (“Intensities”) and a standard (“My Romance”).

There is remarkable piano trio interplay throughout.  Rosen listens creatively to what Maestros Bisio and Arner are doing and gives out with the coloristic energy washes that he does so well; Bisio is alive with noteful counter improvisations to Arner’s forward-pressing expressions; and David unleashes the full spectrum of the music he hears, which engages the jazz tradition, the expressive intensities of the avant, the expanded harmonic, melodic and textural potentialities of the piano and the musical ideas he has in abundance.

It’s a documentary testament to what these three imaginative players can achieve in the space of a single session.  And it’s a sterling example of Arner pianism at its best.

Highly recommended.

Gapplegate Music Review

An Innovative Pianist

Posted by David Arner

David Arner has built a reputation as an innovative pianist and a proponent of spontaneous composition.

He filters both skills into his music and adds a healthy dose of surprise through changes in tempo, dynamics and harmony, weaving one into the other with facile dexterity.

His ability to shape progression has led to associations with other creative forces like Tomas Ulrich, Dom Minasi and Susie Ibarra.  He also has collaborated with his compatriots on this record, Michael Bisio (bass) and Jay Rosen (drums), both in concert and on the CD Porgy & Bess Act 1(CIMP, 2009).  Bisio has had an intersting carrer, first playing classical music with the Seattle Symphony and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra before he found jazz in the 1980s.  From then on, it was a journey filled with adventure into the unknown. Unafraid of risk, Bisio has been called to share the musical lore of Charles Gayle, John Tchicai , Joe McPhee and Diedre Murray , among others.
Inspired by Tony Williams to play the drums, Rosen became seriously involved with jazz after hearing Charlie Parker. A colorful drummer, he filters his innate sense of rhythm and time into the veins of a tune, giving it a pulsating presence.

Arner, Bisio and Rosen have an inherent immediacy. Reading each other perfectly, they develop ideas with cohesion and a committed passion.

Four of the six selections—”Double Nature,” “Swirl,” “Mr. MB” and “A Take On It All”—are spontaneous improvisations, liberating each from the strictures of composition and opening the door to some arresting developments.

Bisio’s scraggly bass is the take-off for “Double Nature.” Arner and Rosen prowl, converse, interlock and bring in an introspective mood. The character of the track changes as Arner develops a melody of flowing sweetness that is countered by Bisio’s arching bow. It is soon a riptide set up by the percussive hammer of the piano, the shimmer of the cymbals and the rolling of the bass. Ideas are fermented and brought to fruition at a furious pace.  It is all brilliantly conceived and resolved.

Arner’s “Intensities Opus 56” drives the adjective. The thrust is forceful, but it is not without an underlying emotion. Arner roils and rumbles, his two-handed approach balanced between attack and modulation. The tapestry is splashed by the shifting timbre of Bisio’s arco and the percussive touches from Rosen before the final riot of color, as Arner lets the tempo surge and seethe.

“My Romance” is given a warm reading. The melody flows into the open arms of improvisation, rippling in the becoming presence of Arner’s resplendent piano.  It’s a beautiful finale to an album that holds several magical moments.

Jerry D’Souza, December 09, All About Jazz