The Treniers Rock

1-CD Digipak mit 64-seitigem Booklet, 32 Titel. Spieldauer 82:31 Minuten.

Keine Band aus den frühen Fünfzigern besass vergleichbare Energie; diese CD ist eine einzige musikalische Dauerattacke! Die Treniers beeinflussten die Fifties-Pioniere Bill Haley & His Comets, Freddie Bell & the Bellboys, Jimmy Cavallo und viele andere! Sie wirkten in einigen frühen Rock-Filmen mit! Die erste labelübergreifende Zusammenstellung mit allen Treniers-Klassikern für London, OKeh, Epic, Vik und Brunswick und Milt Treniers besten Soloaufnahmen, dazu  zwei Versionen ihres größten Erfolgs ‚Go! Go! Go!‘ – in kleiner Besetzung und mit Big Band. Bill Dahls umfangreicher Begleittext enthält ein ausführliches Interview mit Milt Trenier.

Lange bevor es den Begriff Rock 'n' Roll überhaupt gab, rockten und rollten schon die Treniers. Sie spielten Jump und Jive und stellten Gin-Bars und Kneipen zwischen Vegas und Wildwood auf den Kopf. Eine verrücktere Truppe müsste erst noch erfunden werden; die Treniers unterhielten angesoffene Zocker in Vegas-Salons – mit pausenlosem Klamauk, der sie auch in den richtungweisenden Rock 'n' Roll-Filmen 'The Girl Can't Help It' und 'Don't Knock The Rock' auszeichnete. Die eineiigen Zwillinge Claude und Cliff Trenier hatten das Sagen, später kam dann noch ihr jüngerer Bruder Milt hinzu, der schon als Solist sehr gut war, bevor er zur Gruppe stieß. Der angemietete Alt-Saxophonist Don Hill spielte im Überschalltempo – seine überirdischen Beiträge gehörten ebenso unverwechselbar zu den Treniers-Attacken wie Claude und Cliffs grenzenlos swingende Gesangs-Parts. Und der Pianist und Bandleader Gene Gilbeaux sorgte dafür, dass alles fest zusammenhielt und nichts aus dem Ruder lief.

'The Treniers Rock' bündelt die wildesten Tanz-Songs aus den Jahren 1950 bis 1957 für London, OKeh (darunter der Top-10-R&B-Hit Go! Go! Go!), Epic, Vik und Brunswick. 1951 nahmen die Treniers die Perle It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings! auf – und die Platte machte exakt das, was ihr Titel versprach. Was auch für die dröhnenden Jumps wie Hadacole That's All, Rocking On Sunday Night, Rockin' Is Our Bizness, Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie (für die Treniers von ihrem Kumpel Bill Haley komponiert), für das augenzwinkernd humoristische Oh! Oh! (Get Out Of The Car), Rock 'n' Roll Call, das berüchtigte Poon-Tang! und – als Zugabe – für eine Reihe von Milts Solo-Nummern gilt. Die Treniers waren Vorbild für Legionen nachwachsender Rocker: Freddie Bell & the Bellboys, Jimmy Cavallo und sogar für Bill Haley & His Comets. Sie hauen ganz einfach jedem Hörer den Draht aus der Mütze!

The Treniers

For more than half a century, the Treniers rocked packed nightclubs from New York and Wildwood, New Jersey to Las Vegas and L.A.'s Sunset Strip. Nobody put on a wilder show; it was proud family tradition. Long before rock 'n' roll was officially christened, their hilarious, often improvised antics were as zany and athletic as the genre's primordial era got, though their demographics were anything but teenaged. Were they the rockingest lounge act of all time?

"I'm a little prejudiced. I think they were. I think they were the most copied, too," says Milt Trenier, youngest of the performing brothers. "One reason why we didn't become as popular as some of the recording artists was because our records–-we were doing choreography. We were doing that way before the Temptations and the Four Tops and everybody else." True, their platters couldn't fully capture the eye-popping visual appeal of their live presentation. Yet when the Treniers rocked on record, walls shook and ceilings crumbled.

Identical twins Claude and Cliff were the ringleaders, careening non-stop across the stage as they sang, danced, and cut up with total gleeful abandon, never letting the action cool or allowing their limber legs to stop moving. The Treniers brought R&B and rock 'n' roll to Vegas, their hip brand of jumping jive clicking with adults swilling cool alcoholic libations inside late-night lounges. Their rock-solid combo, anchored by alto sax dynamo Don Hill and bandleading pianist Gene Gilbeaux, kept the red-hot rhythms flowing from dusk 'til dawn and beyond. 

Long before Bill Haley & His Comets crashed the national consciousness, a then-unknown Haley crossed paths with the Treniers in Wildwood in 1950. "The first place we worked there was called the Riptide. That's when Bill Haley came in," says Milt. "He said, 'What kind of music are you guys doing?' He was doing what they called country and western at the time. Then he started putting in some of his swing and rhythm into it, sort of similar to what we were doing." Granted, the Treniers weren't Haley's sole bridge from hillbilly to rock 'n' roll. But as Milt adds, "A lot of it was borrowed from the Treniers!"

The Treniers also proved influential to honking saxman Jimmy Cavallo, in all likelihood the East Coast's first Caucasian jump bluesman."My first professional gig on the road was opposite the Treniers, one of the greatest rhythm and blues bands in the business," says Cavallo. "When I opened (at) Wildwood, these were the cats I played with. They were the headliners; I was second to the headliners. There was another act under me. I was out there with them cats, and happy."

Longtime Vegas lounge favorites Freddie Bell & the Bellboys closely patterned their energetic routines after what the Treniers wrought, utilizing practically identical instrumentation. "He met us in Wildwood. He was shining shoes in front of the Beachcomber, where we were appearing," says Milt. "So when he actually got his group together and he first went to Vegas, they did every song that we did."

"The Treniers were a heavy influence on me, from Wildwood," said the late Philly-born Bell. "We were all kids, working in Wildwood--sort of a rock 'n' roll resort." Claude and Cliff even gave Freddie anickname that led to his biggest record in 1956. "The Treniers always called me Ding Dong," he said. "And I wrote a song called 'Giddy-Up-A Ding Dong.' 

The Treniers were right up there with the Platters and Haley's Comets when it came to appearing in 1950s rock 'n' roll films. They noticeably amped up the energy level in any quickie flick they lip-synched a number in, no doubt a major factor in why they were invited to participate in so many. The group cut a string of sizzling singles for OKeh Records during the first half of the decade that were seminal proto-rock 'n' roll. Yet the chart gods weren't kind: The Treniers somehow only managed one genuine R&B hit, 1951's Go! Go! Go!

from BCD16164 - TRENIERS Rock
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