Steve Tromans / JJ Wheeler

“Blue Room”

(Mongrel Records)

This fascinating duo recording features two of the most significant figures on Birmingham’s thriving jazz and improvised music scene. Pianist Steve Tromans is a comparative veteran, at home in a variety of jazz contexts and a highly accomplished player of both the acoustic and electric versions of his instrument. Tromans possesses an inquisitive musical mind and is a great theorist and experimenter, his back catalogue includes world and electronic music and settings of beat poetry (Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac etc) as well as more conventional jazz recordings including a number of sets for solo piano. Recently Tromans has been exploring his love of the music of John Coltrane with his De-Bop Band featuring bassist Chris Mapp and drummer Miles Levin, reworking the classic “A Love Supreme” album for the 2011 Mostly Jazz Festival. Later in the year Tromans delved into the music of Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and Charles Mingus in a more successful quartet performance at the 2011 London Jazz Festival (Tromans, Mapp and Levin plus saxophonist Mike Fletcher).

Tromans’ experiments with the music of the great jazz composers informs this latest release which sees him teaming up with the young drummer JJ Wheeler in an unusual piano/drums configuration. Wheeler is a recent graduate of the Jazz Course at Birmingham Conservatoire but is fast making a name for himself as one of the music’s movers and shakers. Besides his playing abilities he is also an accomplished jazz journalist and has written for Peter Bacon’s Jazz Breakfast and Sebastian Scotney’s London Jazz Blog. More importantly, since relocating to London, he has established his own Mongrel record label with “Blue Room” representing the initial release. “Unconventional” by Wheeler’s young quintet will follow in March 2012.

The duo’s stated aim with regard to the music on “Blue Room” is to “manipulate well trodden standards in an unfamiliar light, stretching the boundaries of form, harmony and rhythm to create open landscapes on which the intricacies of composition can be exposed and expanded upon”. It’s an extension of the “theme/open changes” methodology that Tromans applies to his quartet and indeed the duo stretch a number of pieces so far out of shape that they practically comprise new compositions. Although they had worked together previously in other contexts and enjoyed the musical dialogue that had developed between them this recording was the first time that Tromans and Wheeler had played as a duo and they entered the studio “with no preconceptions other than to create new music out of the seeds of the standard repertoire”. On these terms the record succeeds brilliantly with the youthful Wheeler very much an equal partner as his drums bring a richness of colour, comment and punctuation to the music.

The duo begin with a surprisingly pensive and lyrical exploration of Coltrane’s “Central Park West”  as Wheeler shadows Tromans’ piano ruminations with an impressive maturity and consummate good taste. This is a genuine musical dialogue, a meeting of equals with the younger man making a vital contribution to the success of the music. The duo also find plenty of fresh things to say on the much played “Giant Steps”, one of Coltrane’s most famous compositions. Their approach is almost minimalistic with Wheeler’s subtle, quietly colourful drumming filling in the spaces between Tromans’ hypnotic piano arpeggios.

The duo take a rather more forceful approach to Carla Bley’s “Ida Lupino” as Tromans adopts a more percussive piano style and Wheeler keeps a steady hi hat pulse going almost throughout. Elsewhere his work around the kit is restlessly colourful and inventive in a thrilling exchange of musical ideas. 

Next the pair perform a segue of the jazz standard “Just Friends” (Klemmer/Lewis) and Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing”, the latter a great favourite for improvisers. Tromans again adopts a percussive , Monkish piano sound and there are even moments where Wheeler’s drums take over the lead as the duo continue to trade ideas productively.

Rodger & Hart’s title track features Troman’s pellucid piano and the delicate shimmer of Wheeler’s cymbals (significantly the album credits specify “J J Wheeler drums and cymbals”) in a piece that takes the tune into the realm of ECM style spaciousness.

The duo’s treatment of George Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day” brings out the full beauty of the melody but also pushes gently at the boundaries before seguing into the closing “Blues In J”, the only totally original piece on the record. Given the duo’s method of working I’d take a guess that this is in fact entirely improvised with Wheeler’s colourful, polyrhythmic drumming dancing above Troman’s insistent, powerful piano vamps with the balance of power gradually shifting as the piece progresses and the duo lock into a groove. It’s hypnotic and compelling and represents the “powerful and explosive” side of the duo as mentioned in their press release. Much of the rest of the album dwells on the “subtle and beautiful” but Tromans and Wheeler can make the sparks fly too.

Piano and drum duets are rare in jazz (offhand I can only really think of Will Butterworth and Dylan Howe’s very different but equally satisfying Stravinsky Duo project) but the Tromans/Wheeler partnership works very well and “Blue Room” is absorbing and convincing throughout, holding the listener’s attention despite the pared down instrumentation- I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed this album. The duo’s treatment of their chosen material is innovative and fascinating and it’s clear that this partnership also has enormous future potential. Wheeler has it within him to become a major figure in British jazz. He already leads a number of projects and is a sideman with a dozen others. Shades of Sebastian Rochford’s versatility but with something of Michael Janisch’s organisational and promoting skills- an impressive combination that bodes well for the future.

Tromans and Wheeler are currently continuing their musical explorations at a residency at Stray’s Jazz, Newark, Notts. (http://www.straysjazz.co.uk). They’d also be naturals for the 2012 Harmonic Festival in Birmingham where Tromans gave an incredible marathon solo performance last year (reviewed elsewhere on this site). Let’s just hope, eh? 

Meanwhile the duo’s performance at Dempsey’s in Cardiff will be broadcast on Rhys Phillips “Jazz Special” programme for Radio Cardiff on Sunday 22 January, between 9-10pm on 98.7FM across Cardiff and online at http://www.radiocardiff.org.

blog comments powered by Disqus