Alex Henderson

Brian Trainor

Tranquillo
 
Camaraderie. Rapport. Communication. Interplay. Chemistry. These are things that have characterized many memorable jazz groups over the years—groups like John Coltrane’s early 1960s quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, or Miles Davis’ cohesive mid-1950s quintet with Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Those groups thrived on spontaneity and individual expression, but they were also examples of teamwork—and that sort of teamwork is what acoustic pianist Brian Trainor and colleagues Steve Marcus (tenor and soprano saxophone), Tyrone Brown (acoustic bass) and Jimmy Miller (drums) strive for on Tranquillo.

It is no coincidence that Tranquillo is listed as a release by the Brian Trainor Quartet instead of simply by Brian Trainor; the New Jersey-born pianist is quick to point out that Tranquillo is truly a group effort—and that spirit of teamwork is very much in evidence whether the quartet is embracing Trainor’s own compositions or interpreting familiar standards.

“Steve Marcus, Tyrone Brown and Jimmy Miller are not secondary on this album,” the 54-year-old Trainor stresses. “They are an integral part of what I’m doing. When you see this quartet live, you see four guys having a wonderful time—four guys who really know one another musically. Every time I work with this group, it’s a thrill.”

When the Brian Trainor Quartet was officially formed in 1996, all of its members brought a wealth of experience to the table. Born in Trenton, NJ on August 29, 1950, Trainor was only a teenager when he studied with alto sax legend Phil Woods—and by the end of the 1960s, he was being employed with heavyweights like tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Trainor had been performing live a long time when he began to build a catalog in the early 1990s; Tranquillo is his sixth album as a leader and his first for the British Harkit label.
Marcus is a versatile, far-reaching saxman whose credits range from a lucrative association with flutist Herbie Mann during fusion’s early years to a 12-year stint with the notoriously demanding Buddy Rich. Brown has been employed by everyone from Max Roach, Grover Washington, Jr. and Pat Martino to Lou Rawls, and Miller is a veteran of the Philadelphia/South Jersey jazz scene who has played with Anita O'Day, Richie Cole and Dave Liebman.

“Steve, Tyrone, Jimmy and I are very emotional players,” Trainor asserts. “When we’re playing, we try our best to make somebody feel something.” And that warm, emotional outlook is evident throughout this album. It is evident on the placid, good-natured opener “Mercer Balloon” (a Trainor original) and a dusky yet hard-swinging performance of John Coltrane’s “Equinox”; it is evident on Trainor’s reflective “In Stillness” and an introspective version of the A.J. Lerner/Frederick Loewe standard “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

“Mercer Balloon” and the thoughtful “Pearl Pale Hands” are both pieces that Trainor composed for his Tangled Roots Suite, which contains a total of 22 songs. The songs were written in such a way that they can either be played together or stand on their own separately; ten of them appeared on Trainor’s fourth album, Tangled Roots (which was released on Summit Records in 2003), while “Mercer Balloon” and “Pearl Pale Hands” are making their recorded debut on Tranquillo.

Trainor has long been of the opinion that if a musician is going to embrace a standard that has been recorded many times, it is important to bring something personal to the song--which is exactly what Trainor’s quartet does on Johnny Mandel’s “Emily” and Horace Silver’s “Tokyo Blues.” Quite often, “Emily” has been performed as a gentle ballad; Trainor’s quartet, however, performs the Mandel standard at a fast waltz tempo. Trainor notes: “Sometimes, my quartet plays ‘Emily’ quietly on stage, but for this record, we wanted something a little more aggressive.”

And on “Tokyo Blues,” Trainor surprises us by opening a Silver classic on an avant-garde note with some Cecil Taylor-influenced pianism—that is, before moving into a gritty, funky hard bop/soul-jazz groove. Trainor isn’t an avant-garde artist in the strict sense; he is essentially a post-bop/hard bop improviser whose sense of swing has been influenced by pianists ranging from Bill Evans, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock. But Trainor respects and appreciates jazz’ avant-garde, and his unexpected introduction to “Tokyo Blues” is his way of acknowledging Taylor’s often misunderstood genius.

The album’s biggest surprise of all, however, is the Title track “Tranquillo,” a spoken word offering that finds Trainor functioning as a vocalist and underscores his love of poetry.

“I’ve been writing poetry my whole life,” Trainor explains. “’Tranquillo’ is another color, another part of whom I am. On most of my previous records, I have included at least one vocal.”

One thing that Tranquillo will not be accused of is favoring technique over feeling; Trainor, Marcus, Brown and Miller are all smart enough to realize that in jazz, virtuosity doesn’t mean a lot without soulfuless and the down-home feeling of the blues—qualities that are in abundance on Tranquillo. “When I was studying with Phil Woods as a teenager,” Trainor recalls, “we went through all of the technical aspects of jazz, and he said, ‘You got all that? Well, forget it. Forget all that technical stuff and play from the heart.’ And Phil’s statement has stayed with me all these years. The players in this quartet all have strong chops, but this record isn’t about showing off our chops—it’s about feeling. Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk weren’t just about technique—they were about feeling and emotion, and that is what my quartet brings to Tranquillo.”
 
—Alex Henderson, September 2004
 
Alex Henderson is a veteran music critic whose work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, JazzTimes, Jazziz, the L.A. Weekly, CD Review, HITS, All About Jazz and numerous other publications. Since 1996, he has written several thousand reviews for the All Music Guide’s popular website and series of reference books.