The Eyal Lovett Trio is an international piano jazz trio that focuses on themes and stories about displacement. The bandleader-pianist-composer Lovett is an Israeli and the Czech double bass player Czech Jan Sedlák both live in Aalborg, Denmark while the Australian drummer Alan Lowe lives in Berlin. «Through The Rain» is already the fourth album of the Lovett as a bandleader and was recorded live, without an audience, at the Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg (where Lovett studies now) in 2020.

Lovett lived in Berlin before relocating to Aalborg, but he does not feel belongs anywhere, not in Israel, Germany or Denmark. But his warm and lyrical music, as well as his gift as a musical storyteller owes much to the formative time of growing up in Israel and the Israeli culture. «Through The Rain» opens with a sentimental medley of popular Israeli songs – the solo piano «Hofim» (beaches in Hebrew), reflecting «where the shore meets the land, or where you meet yourself», «Shir Tishrey» and «Ata Mitorer». This medley also marks the seminal influence of the introspective and somehow melancholic ECM school had on Lovett, as well as the organic, well-balanced and playful flow and the immediate affinity of Lovett, Sedlák who joined the trio only recently, and Lowe, who plays with Lovett in the last ten years.

The dramatic «Don’t Lie» and «A Lost World» follow Lovett’s inner compass. «Don’t Lie» is, obviously, about being true to your inner self, while «A Lost World» was inspired by Stefan Zweig, the Austrian-born Jewish writer who in 1934, as a result of the rise of the Nazis in Germany, emigrated first to England and eventually to Brazil, there, he committed suicide together with his wife in 1942. The ex-pat Lovett, like Zweig, is disillusioned about the future of Israel and does not feel at home there anymore. But Lovett is an optimist by nature as his «Teach Me About Leaves», written for his children and borrows its title from Leonard Cohen’s poem, the title piece and «With You» tell.

The trio closes its set of expressive and captivating musical stories with another medley of Israeli themes and stories. The Sephardic-tinged «Florentin», after the hipster neighborhood in Tel Aviv, where Lovett met his wife (and where the Levontin 7 club is located), the emotional cover of the popular song «Ein Gedi», titled after the kibbutz located near the Dead Sea, and a touching solo piano reprise of «Hofim».

Eyal Hareuveni   

Eyal Lovett (p), Jan Sedlák (b), Aidan Lowe (dr)