By Gracey Murphy
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At age 4, Lynne Arriale had a little toy piano and re-created tunes she heard on the radio. She begged her parents for lessons and wouldn’t take a nap unless there was music playing, she said.Now a professional jazz pianist, Arriale will grace Iowa City with her music for the first time at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. She will share the stage with Carla Cook and Grace Kelly.

“[Cook and Kelly] are outstanding and incredible musicians, both of them,” Arriale said, “We get along beautifully. We all come from different backgrounds and have different musical sensibilities.”

The women will perform jazz at their show, but Arriale didn’t start playing jazz; until she was 25, she played primarily classical music.

“I had a pivotal moment,” Arriale said. “I was walking down the street, and I was like, ‘Hey, you should study jazz.’ It was kind of a whim.”

Arriale also composes music. Her music comes from the heart, she said, and she creates emotion in the music by telling a story.

To evoke these qualities in her music, Arriale puts herself in the place of the audience, then sings what she wants them to hear.

“I don’t play songs unless I really feel a connection,” she said. “If I don’t feel a connection, how can I possibly expect the audience to have a connection?”

When she’s not performing and composing, Arriale teaches jazz piano at the University of Northern Florida. Each week, she requires her students perform in front of the class, and she encourages them to overcome the jitters with practice.

As with her own work, Arriale makes her students sing while they play so they’ll be more lyrical. The creative approaches is incorporated into her own work, she said.

“I love seeing the light go off in my students or when there is a great shift in their playing,” she said.

Arriale will perform with Cook and Kelly, but she has recently grappled with solo work.

“Solo is extremely challenging,” she said. “We have to create musical orchestra at the piano. It’s a really wonderful art form; it’s a very intimate experience with piano and audience.”

A solo project may be in Arriale’s future. She works a day at a time, she said. She loves working with a group but is unaware what is next for her.

Arriale looks forward to performing with Cook and Kelly. She wants to reach the audience and lift their spirits with this show.

“They don’t have to be jazz lovers,” Arriale said. “We want to take them on a musical journey.”

MUSIC
What: Lynne Arriale, Carla Cook, and Grace Kelly
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Mill, 120 E. Burlington
Admission: Free