Phil Merriman Trio

“The Roots Beneath”

(Self Released)

Phil Merriman – piano, John Williamson – double bass, Simon Roth – drums

“The Roots Beneath” is the debut album from this trio led by London based pianist and composer Phil Merriman. Formed in 2022 the group has performed widely on the jazz scene in London and the Home Counties, honing their skills prior to the album recording, which took place in September 2023 at Ayriel Studios in Yorkshire.

I know Merriman’s playing best from his work with trombonist and composer Raph Clarkson. Merriman appears on Clarkson’s albums “Soldiering On”, “This Is How We Grow” and “Equal Spirits”, playing both piano and electric keyboards. Clarkson returns the favour here, acting as producer as he works alongside the renowned recording engineer Sonny Johns.

Originally classically trained Merriman studied jazz piano with the late, great John Taylor, who steered Merriman’s focus increasingly towards improvisation. Merriman also studied music at the University of York, where his contemporaries included Clarkson and Roth.

Merriman has subsequently worked widely across a variety of music genres, including jazz, classical, folk and world music. He has also worked as a producer, producing “Please Do Not Ignore The Mermaid” for harpist, vocalist and composer Tara Minton.

“The Roots Beneath” places the focus on Merriman as both pianist and composer. The programme features ten original compositions from the pen of Merriman, plus an arrangement of the Rodgers & Hart song “My Romance”.

As a writer Merriman acknowledges the influence of classical composers such as Bartok and Messiaen, but improvisation also plays a key part in the trio’s performances. As a jazz musician and composer he draws inspiration from such luminaries as Taylor and the late, great trumpeters Miles Davis and Kenny Wheeler.

Merriman says of the overall album concept;
“For this project I started with a series of track titles, around the theme of what is ‘unseen’ behind people of great character. Where so often we see a fruiting tree, we rarely get to see the graft, the discipline and the spiritual rhythms that form ‘the roots beneath’.”

The album commences with “First One Back”, an intimate and introspective opening track that establishes Williamson’s melodic double bass as an effective foil to Merriman’s piano. The leader solos more effusively as the piece develops, while Roth’s delicate, subtly detailed drum and cymbal work is a delight throughout.

“Reliance” is similar in feel, unhurried and featuring a folk like melody that is indicative of that Bartok influence. Paced by a recurring piano / bass ostinato the piece allows Roth to excel as a colourist with some deft, and sometimes dramatic cymbal work.

The title track combines rhythmic cut and thrust with flowing piano melodies and includes something of a feature for the excellent Roth, who is a more forceful figure here. Merriman and Roth have worked regularly together, often as a duo, since their student days some eighteen years ago.

“Rest” is introduced by a passage of unaccompanied piano with Merriman establishing a circular motif that provides the basis for this track. It features the trio’s most dynamic and energetic playing thus far as Roth responds busily to Merriman’s promptings.

The trio continue in a similar vein on “Now And Not Yet”, which is ushered in by Roth at the drums. His rolling, odd meter grooves provide the springboard for Merriman’s piano explorations and Williamson’s double bass solo. Once again it’s a dynamic, strongly rhythmic, and highly interactive trio performance.

“Letters” returns us to the introspective mood of the opening two pieces and is a pretty tune featuring the lyrical,  crystalline sounds of the piano alongside melodic double bass and a delicately nuanced brushed drum commentary. Again it’s highly interactive, but in a very different, more tightly controlled way.

The following “Waves” exhibits similar qualities with the leader’s gently flowing piano ruminations provoking sympathetic reactions from bass and drums. Williamson’s bass temporarily assumes the lead before handing back to the piano. It’s the kind of tightly focussed, highly distilled collective performance that wouldn’t sound out of place on an ECM album.

Merriman’s arrangement of “My Romance” gives the song a very contemporary makeover that fits the trio’s distinctive style like a glove. It barely sounds like a jazz standard at all. Here the trio lighten up again with Merriman’s jaunty piano figures complemented by an assertive bass solo from Williamson and a lively and playful drum commentary from Roth that combines subtlety with a wealth of delightful detail.

Again something of that spirit is continued into the next piece, the Merriman original “Parallel Spirits”, a more lyrical piece featuring flowing piano and a drum commentary that sounds as if much of it is being played by Roth’s bare hands, although some stick work is detectable too.

The lively and playful “Shoulder Ride” suggests that Merriman’s influences also include Thelonious Monk. One of the album’s most exuberant performances includes a dazzling piano solo from the leader that includes plenty of ‘Monk-isms’. Drummer Roth gives a dynamic performance with both sticks and brushes and is featured extensively, both as a soloist and in a series of sparky exchanges with Merriman.

The album concludes with “Strength in Weakness”, a more atmospheric and sometimes introspective piece that features the sounds of Williamson’s bowed bass on the intro. He later switches to pizzicato, establishing a groove around which the trio coalesce, with Merriman and Roth continuing to bounce ideas off each other. It’s a piece that is not short on drama and the music gradually develops an impressive momentum that is reminiscent of ‘spiritual jazz’.  A gentler coda featuring the melodic pizzicato playing of Williamson finishes the album on a serene note.

“The Roots Beneath” represents an impressive debut from Merriman and the trio that touches a variety of stylistic bases. As a unit the trio has developed a highly distinctive group sound with Roth’s unique drumming style a particularly vital component. His playing really does catch the ear throughout.

However, if there is a reservation it’s that some of the music is little too tightly controlled and I find myself agreeing with George Cole who reviewed the album for the Jazz Views website who expressed the wish that the trio would let themselves “uncoil” a little more. As lovely as the ‘ECM’ style pieces are it would be good to hear a few more examples of really vigorous group interaction in the style of, say, Phronesis. One senses that the trio have it within them to do something like that, and maybe they do in a live performance situation.

Williamson impresses at the bass and is scheduled to release a solo album later in the year but it’s the musical relationship between Merriman and Roth that’s at the core of the trio’s music. It will be very interesting to see what the group does next.

“The Roots Beneath” is available here;
https://philmerrimantrio.bandcamp.com/album/the-roots-beneath

 

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