JAZZ REVIEW : Arriale Brings Distinctive Style to L.A.

It’s clear from the first notes she plays that pianist Lynne Arriale is passionately into her music. Eyes closed, hair flying, body swaying, she seems completely at one with the stream of ideas that flow through her fingers.

The image is consistent with the warm, involved playing on two recordings (“When You Listen” and “The Eyes Have It,” DMP Records) that preceded her Los Angeles debut Wednesday night at Chadney’s in Burbank. Arriale was the winner of the 1993 Great American Jazz Piano competition, but, prior to the award and her subsequent recordings, she was known only to those familiar with the tangled New York jazz scene.

Her opening program revealed both the emerging strengths in her music as well as its quandaries. The first number, Alec Wilder’s “Moon and Sand,” set the way for a series of standards--”My Shining Hour,” “I Loves You Porgy” and “In Love in Vain”--that concluded with a classic blues, “Centerpiece.”

Arriale’s soloing centered around long, stretched-out right-hand lines countered by brisk chordal accents. In the ballads, her exquisitely sensitive touch and clustered harmonies were reminiscent of Bill Evans; her up-tempos had the feel of Cedar Walton’s rhythmic drive; and her stomping blues choruses on “Centerpiece” would probably have delighted Professor Longhair. But the seemingly nonstop abundance of Arriale’s imagination, the unique way in which she employed sequential phrases to build climactic passages, the subtle but persistent swing, were all her own--distinct evidence of a major talent in the making.

There were, however, a few problems. In Arriale’s understandable desire to find a new, multidimensional sound for her trio, she has become associated with highly individualistic drummer Steve Davis (local bassist Tom Warrington also appeared for this engagement). Although he used only a snare drum and a variety of cymbals, Davis performed as a near-equal partner in the music. Too often, this resulted in annoyingly distracting drumming that had the effect of a series of busy, superficial solos at the expense of Arriale’s multilayered piano. When Davis laid aside his sticks for brushes (which he did far too infrequently) the attractive interchanges between Arriale and Warrington--working together, beautifully, for the first time--suddenly blossomed.

Arriale has the potential to become an important jazz artist. But she needs to move beyond her current dependency upon right-hand playing, amplify her harmonic colorations and, above all, rethink her musical interaction with Davis.

* The Lynn Arriale Trio appears Saturday night at Lunaria, 10351 Santa Monica Blvd. (310) 282-8870. Shows at 9:30 and 11 p.m. and 12:30 a . m. $5 cover and two-drink minimum.