What first strikes you when listening to a Lynne Arriale recording is the sheer beauty of her piano sound: the incredibly fulsome, singing tone and her remarkable touch. This, Arriale's 15th album as a leader, Chimes of Freedom, is no exception. The pianist, bandleader and composer is joined by Dutch bassist/co-producer Jasper Somsen – who featured on Arriale's 2018 debut on Challenge Records, Give Us These Days – and drummer EJ Strickland.

While her previous album explored the transience of human existence, Chimes of Freedom expresses her desire to “defend our right to hear the truth at a time when honesty itself is under assault”, as she states in the booklet notes. Whether it's the granitic strength of album opener ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child’, the dynamic ostinatos that power the vivid ‘Journey’ (one of seven impressive originals), the determined tread of ‘3 Million Steps’, or the sublime melodicism of ‘Hope’, the trio coalesces around a shared artistic vision with playing that is both pristine and seductive at the same time. Singer-songwriter KJ Denhert joins the trio on a brace of songs, the Bob Dylan-penned title track, a hymn to the downtrodden and the forsaken, plus Paul Simon's ‘American Tune’, a song which has also attracted Kurt Elling's attention in recent times.

Recorded at the MotorMusic Studio in Mechelen, Belgium and the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in NYC, the sound quality is in the demonstration class.