Lynne Arriale Brings Her Trio to Oakland

Ahead of her April 25 appearance at Piedmont Piano Company, pianist-composer Lynne Arriale reflects on the childhood ear that led her to jazz; the human values at the heart of Being Human; and a trio set shaped by lyricism, optimism, and close listening.

The Lynne Arriale Trio performs on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. at Piedmont Piano Company

Listen to the full conversation with Lynne Arriale below.

Lynne Arriale’s new music begins with a simple question: What does a human quality sound like? On Being Human, her 17th album as a leader, she answers that question through original pieces named for passion, courage, love, faith, curiosity, persistence, gratitude, and joy. The record arrives with a stated purpose. Arriale wrote it, she said, in response to “the division and turmoil in our world,” focusing on the qualities “that define our humanity” and sending listeners back into life with “a sense of unity and optimism.”

That aspiration aligns with Arriale’s approach to music. In conversation, she focused less on career milestones and more on music’s ability to reach people where language falls short. “Music expresses emotions that often can’t be put into words,” she said. For her, that remains one of its deepest powers: people from different places and backgrounds can sit in the same room, hear the same performance, and carry away distinct yet meaningful experiences.

Arriale’s path into jazz began far from any formal sense of genre. As a child, she played tunes by ear on a plastic toy piano, drawing songs from the radio and from musical recordings into what she called “my own language.” Her first real encounter with jazz came later, in college, when she heard Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and sensed something unusual in the music’s unfolding melodies. The decisive turn came during graduate study in classical piano, when a thought appeared with startling clarity: “You should study jazz.” A teacher placed Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight” in front of her and told her to make up new melodies. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? I get to do that?’” Arriale recalled. “And that was the beginning.”

That sense of discovery still shapes her writing. She described composition as an intuitive process, without formula, guided by patience and repeated refinement until an idea feels true to its title. “Passion,” the album’s opening track, is dedicated to Greta Thunberg and posed one of the record’s central challenges: “I kept asking myself, what does passion sound like?” “Joy,” dedicated to Brené Brown, arrives later in the suite as a calypso, a form Arriale has loved for years. She spoke warmly about learning from Monty Alexander’s example and about wanting the piece to leave listeners uplifted at the end of the album’s emotional arc. “Hopefully,” she said, it can “bring a smile to people’s faces.”

The message of Being Human goes beyond titles and dedications. Arriale said she hopes audiences leave a concert “a little bit better,” echoing a Sonny Rollins remark she has long carried with her. That hope extends to the Bay Area performance she brings to Piedmont Piano Company this month. The room itself matters here. Piedmont’s Jazz Piano Masters Series offers pianists a concentrated listening space where nuance can travel. Arriale clearly relishes that setting. She called the showroom “an amazing sight to behold,” and she will use it to present music from Being Human alongside new compositions still in progress.

For this concert, she will be joined by bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Tanner Guss. Arriale said the trio will play selections including “Passion,” “Courage,” “Love,” and “Joy,” along with new material. The combination should suit her strengths well: melodic clarity, rhythmic suppleness, and a bandstand presence that treats audience communication as integral to the performance. “The audience affects us,” she said. “We feel them.”

That exchange may be the clearest way to understand Arriale’s music right now. Being Human addresses a difficult world without debating. It chooses direct feeling, craft, and generosity. In the Oakland performance, those qualities should have room to breathe.

Show Information: The Lynne Arriale Trio performs on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. at Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, as part of the Jazz Piano Masters Series. The trio features Lynne Arriale, Ethan Philion, and Tanner Guss. General admission is $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Tickets and details are available through Piedmont Piano Company.